The Raider's Stronghold
by Wargrave
Summary: GGO original story. Max, a gunslinger in the Gale Gale Online game, is saved from an ambush that wipes out his party by a mysterious sniper. Out of gratitude, he offers to help her on her mission to stop a series of raider attacks, but gets more than he bargained for with the size of the raider's camp. Rated M for safety, for bloodless violence and some swearing. SinonXOC Chap 4 up
1. Chapter 1: The Raider's Stronghold

The Raider's Stronghold

This was the last time.

Never again. I will never, ever, let Lee take point while we travelled ever again. What had been a fun quest of monster hunting had turned into a brutal ambush, with my party on the receiving end of a hail of bullets. Marcus and I were the only ones still standing. Lee, Hans, and Tendo had all been killed; the first two in the opening salvo of automatic rifle rounds, the latter to a rifle shot as we dove for cover. Marcus and I dove behind the strewn remains of a downed building, ducking low and sheltering as best we could from the bullets that flew from the north.

The party that attacked us had started their ambush from the mostly intact shell of an abandoned skyscraper. As best as I could tell, six of their members had flowed out of the building to engage Marcus and myself directly, leaving one man with a rifle on the high ground of an upper level.

Marcus still had his laser rifle equipped, and carried no backup weapon. The fast-firing laser was excellent against the creatures we had hunted, who had no defense against the weapon. Against these humans, however, it was less effective. Human players, especially those who hunted other human players, often had defenses equipped that reduced the effectiveness of the laser shots. I was the only member of our party who carried a ballistic weapon, mostly out of stubbornness. I hate lasers. They're too flashy.

A bullet ripped past my shoulder, cutting through the sleeve of my coat and grazing my skin. I snarled out a curse, ducked behind cover, and checked my arm for the damage. A line two inches long ran along my bicep, glowing red. Gun Gale Online was a brutal game in its interactions, as most Virtual Reality MMOs were, but it didn't do splashes of blood, something for which I was grateful. Having fake but oh-so-real-seeming bullets flying at you in a virtual reality game was scary enough without seeing a simulacrum of your blood gushing everywhere. I snapped my focus back onto the battle, peeking over my cover to see where the enemy was. Marcus and I were hiding behind the same ruined concrete wall, five feet away from one another. The enemy was slowly fanning out around us, boxing us in, keeping us pinned down with alternating bursts of fire.

I raised myself back into firing position, crouched down on one knee, my assault rifle's stock nestled on my right collarbone, its sights perfectly in line with my eye. I took measured shots at the enemy, letting the automatic targeting system line up the shots for me. When the concentric circle in my vision tightened briefly over the head of one of the targets, I didn't hesitate. I fired a three round burst at my target, and even the precognitive line-of-fire system couldn't save him at this range. The bullets collided with his forehead in a tight grouping, and what looked like red sparks and shards of glass exploded out from the back of his head before the rest of his body derezzed, disappearing from sight. My victory was short-lived, as his two companions opened fire on me. Time seemed to slow, and red lines sprang from the barrels of their guns, dozens of them. I dove out of the way, lying prone on the ground so my whole body would disappear behind cover. Less than a second after I had, bullets ripped through the air where my upper body had been, following the predictive lines that had appeared.

From my position on my stomach, I looked up at Marcus' position just a few feet away, just in time to see a rifle shot fly straight through his chest. He fell backwards, gun falling from his hands as his body derezzed and disappeared.

"Fuck!" I yelled, purely out of frustration. If our whole party was killed, these marauding bastards would be able to steal half of the loot we'd spent hours collecting by defeating high-level creatures. It was one of the more brutal aspects of the game. We'd all respawn at a nearby town, and have to start all over again, all because we'd allowed these assholes to get the jump on us.

I popped up from cover again, having slid over to where Marcus had formerly been firing from. The enemy had been assuming I would reappear from my former position, and I used their confusion to shoot down the nearest player, a large man with a Mohawk and a combat shotgun, and wounded one more before they all ducked behind cover.

I kept firing, keeping them pinned down and unable to fire back. My supply of ammunition was dwindling quickly, but I was going to get shot down any second anyway. Already, I could see the red prediction line from the hidden rifleman coalescing on my chest, and I didn't bother to dodge. It was a forgone conclusion anyway.

Suddenly, the line of fire targeting me disappeared. I stopped shooting, looking down at my body armor, trying to figure out what had happened. As soon as my fire slackened, the four remaining ambushers rose from cover, intent on pinning me down so they could begin flanking my position. Within seconds, the heads of two of them exploded into red sparks, and their bodies disappeared. The ground beside them exploded as the bullet that had passed through both of them continued its trajectory to the ground. The sudden loss of their teammates broke the will of the last two, who decided that discretion was the better part of valor. As they turned tail and ran, I rose, and put my last half dozen rounds into the back of one's head, and another massive sniper shot cut the last one down before he had run fifty meters.

I slumped down, my back resting against the cold marble of the debris that had been my cover, utterly spent. Judging from the angle of the shots, the sniper that had dealt so effectively with the attackers would have a perfect line on me from here, but I didn't care much at that point. If they wanted to kill me, there was nothing I could do to stop them. I was out of ammo, and I had nowhere to run to. I raised my fist into the air, orienting my knuckles to where I presumed the sniper had been, and extended my pinky finger and thumb out into what anyone who has ever visited Hawaii would recognize as the hand signal for 'hang loose'. Not very creative of me, but I don't know sign language or anything.

I waited for about thirty seconds, and no sniper bullet disintegrated my head, so I took that as I sign that I was in no danger from my mysterious savior. I stood, slinging my assault rifle over my shoulder, letting its strap hold it in place on my back. I began making my way over to the building where I had figured the shots must have come from; it was almost half a kilometer away, but it was the only decent bit of high ground within range of most snipers.

As I walked, I felt the wind tug at my long duster, the simulated breeze making the black leather snap around my calves. I tugged at the rim of my black, wide-brimmed hat. Video game or not, the sun in this desert area was brutal on my eyes, and I was grateful for the shade. The coat was great for helping me blend in the background of dark environments, and the hat was serving as protection for my eyes; both very practical reasons to wear this ensemble.

Besides, the whole long-coat-and-cowboy-hat look has been around forever for a reason. It's badass, even without an assault rifle slung on your back. Not to mention the practicality that comes with using said long coat to conceal a sawn-off shotgun in a shoulder holster and .50 caliber handgun strapped to my thigh. Neither of those guns had any ammo at the moment, but still. The badass image was maintained.

I walked towards my destination for almost ten minutes before I noticed a figure heading towards me from the west, not from the building to the northwest where I had assumed the sniper shots had come from. The nearest building to the west was nearly two kilometers away, and if the mysterious person had fired from way out there, they must be a sniper the way Michelangelo was a painter.

The figure walked calmly in my direction, and since I had nothing else I could do, I changed course and began walking directly toward them, continuing at a non-threatening pace.

After a few more minutes passed, the figure came into clearer focus. It was a woman, I thought, or a smaller man. Granted, I'm a bit of a giant, so everyone looks small to me, but this person was smaller than most. Therefore, one could understand my bemusement at the size of the weapon the person had slung over their back, the same way I carried my assault rifle. The stock of the massive gun extended almost a foot above their right shoulder, and the end of the gun's barrel almost drug along the ground. Judging by its shape and the massive scope, this person was indeed my mysterious savior. I raised one hand in a benevolent wave as I approached.

The two of us finally stopped walking when we were within ten feet or so of each other. Even though we could have shot one another long ago, we were still wary of new people, as one had to be in this cutthroat game. I would like to say that I dispassionately took in the person's features in order to get a better idea of their motivations, but I would be lying. I totally checked her out.

She was indeed a woman, like I first thought. A young woman, I presumed by her size and fitness, with short-cropped turquoise hair and eyes of matching color. Her outfit was…. intriguing, revealing hints of skin here and there, covering the rest of her in whites and greens. A long, silver-colored scarf covered the lower half of her face, protecting her from the dust that blew around us. She simply stared at me, those bright blue eyes of hers revealing nothing about her intentions.

Finally, the silence became too much for me. "I assume I have you to thank for killing those guys back there."

She nodded, the gesture simultaneously saying 'that is correct' and 'you are welcome'.

"May I ask why you did save me? And also, where's the rest of your party?"

She tilted her head slightly, as if she was deciding whether or not I deserved to know the answers to my questions. Finally, she spoke. Her voice was soft, or at least softer than I had assumed it would be, with little in the way of inflection. "I'm traveling alone. I was hired to check something out nearby. I happened to see that group ambush your group, and I decided I wanted to pitch in," her eyes steeled, and I had to fight the urge to take a step back from her. "I don't like bullies."

I swallowed, somewhat nervous. I made a mental note never to piss this girl off. "Well, I'm grateful that you stepped in. I would've hated to lose all of the things my team worked to acquire. Can I offer you part of our take as thanks? We got a few decent bits of loot this last hunt."

The girl shook her head. "Thank you, but no. I already have my ideal weapon, and I got everything else I need before coming out here alone." Her hand rose to the stock of her sniper rifle, as if she was reaffirming that it was still there.

I nodded at her. Normally, at this point, players would go their separate ways. I'd offered part of our loot, as I felt was fair, and she'd turned it down. I wasn't going to offer _more_ of my hard-earned cash, but for some reason, I didn't want to leave the company of this badass beauty just yet. I had a thought, and decided to just run with it. Worst someone can say to an offer is 'no', right?

"I'm Maximus," I said. It wasn't actually my name, but it was my character's name. It's considered bad form to share your real name online, after all. "You can call me Max, if you like. Can I ask your name?"

She considered a moment once again before answering. "Sinon," she said. She pronounced it like 'she-non'. I liked the way it sounded.

"Nice to meet you, Sinon," I said, giving her a slight bow. "If I can't offer a reward for helping me, can I offer my help in return? I don't know what you were hired to check out, but I'm hoping a second pair of eyes and another gun can help you out. I won't even ask for a cut of whatever your promised payment is. A favor for a favor, if you like."

Sinon looked me up and down, slowly. My mind toyed with idea that was checking me out, but in reality I knew that she was simply assessing me to see if I could help her or not. Finally, she asked, "How do I know if I can trust you?"

Now it was my turn to consider before I spoke. After a minute, I simply said, "In truth, you can't. However, I owe you a debt. That means something to me. Also, unless I'm sorely mistaken, your modus operandi is to stay concealed on the high ground, waiting for the right shot. Thus, it will be my job to be on the ground, in the thick of the fight, with my back to you. You'll have a far better chance of betraying me than I ever would of betraying you."

Apparently, I said the right things. Sinon nodded once, and proceeded to give me the run-down of her mission. We started heading back the way I had come from, as that was the way Sinon had been heading when she had spotted the ambush that took down my team.

As we reached the site of the ambush, I took the time to find ammo drops from my downed allies and enemies. I took as much assault rifle ammo as I could, glad that I had chosen to use a rifle that used 7.62mm rounds, the most common ammo type in the game. In addition, I took a dozen shotgun rounds, slipping two into the double chambers of my sawn-off and the other ten into a bandolier that ran across my chest, opposite the strap to my assault rifle. Finally, I found two clips for my massive pistol, which was rare, though totally welcome. With a lucky shot, I could gun down someone through light cover with those massive rounds. In the ammo drop from my friend Tendo, I discovered a half-dozen charges of C4. Tendo was our demolitions man, but he had shown me his trade enough times that I felt like it was worth bringing the boom along with me. Besides, if I didn't, some other random player might take it later.

Once I was fully re-armed, we continued our trek. Sinon gave me the rest of the details of her mission. Apparently, a group of players was setting up something of a base of operations an hour or so away from a main thoroughfare for players, and were using it to raid other players with alarming frequency. Normally, this would have earned the group a swift retribution from a high-level player, but these raiders made it a point to only attack groups of lower-level players or single targets they could quickly overwhelm. After about a week of this, players had had enough. A group of twenty newer players pooled their resources, and began attempting to hire someone to take out this collective. Sinon had been the only one to agree, since their promised payment was still relatively low.

By the end of her explanation, I was silently regretting my offer to help her out. Sure, she was gorgeous and I have a bad case of White Knight Syndrome, but still; I was only one of my party still alive, and if I died, we'd still lose a large part of our take. I was sure all of my teammates, who must have respawned by now, were checking my position on the Team Map and screaming incoherently at my heading. _Meh, _I thought. _I'm committed now_. I wasn't going to renege on a deal struck with a pretty lady.

I asked Sinon what I hoped were questions that would come across as intelligent and thought-provoking, but probably just came across as nervous, which I was. I asked about the raider's stronghold, their numbers, the identity of leaders, anything I thought could give me an advantage going into the gun battle that I knew was in my near future. Unfortunately, it seemed Sinon was in the dark as much as I was. The group had attacked on three different occasions, and each time they had attacked with at least a dozen men; worse, according to the attacked players after they respawned, each attack involved different raiders, if eyewitness accounts could be believed. That meant that at the very least we two were against thirty six different, heavily armed raiders. My insides went cold as she described what we were up against.

Don't judge me. You'd be freaking out too. Well, Sinon didn't seem to be. But she was a sniper. She didn't have to worry about bullets, like I did. That's what I kept telling myself, at least.

Don't look at me like that. Seriously, I wasn't feeling scared. Even if the thought of entering into a gunfight that would likely leave me outnumbered forty to one would make such hypothetical fears wholly justified.

Still, I was far too tough to let such things rattle me; such impulses are for lesser men. The shiver that ran down my spine was just because I was…. Cold.

In the desert.

The wind blew around the two of us as Sinon and I lapsed into a reserved silence. After nearly two hours of walking, Sinon suddenly stuck her arm in my way, stopping me cold.

"What is it?" I asked.

She shook her head, and then looked at me with one finger on her lips. I nodded, and followed her lead as we ascended the sand dune in front of us, unlimbering the assault rifle from my shoulder, holding it loosely, eyes scanning. We stopped again just before we crested the top, both of going lying prone on our bellies, crawling our way to the top. Once we crested the ridge, I discovered what Sinon had silenced me about. In the distance, about a kilometer away, was the raider's stronghold. It was made from the remains of two skyscrapers; one had broken its foundation, falling into the other, which supported its broken mate at a twenty degree angle. Someone, presumably the raiders, had used the remains of other broken buildings to barricade and shore up the gap, turning the area into a fortress. They clearly occupied the space between the two buildings, using the fallen skyscraper as a massive awning.

Of more immediate concern was the outpost only two hundred feet from our own location. It was made from what looked like a broken cell tower, shored up with sheet metal with a platform that had been shoehorned on top to make a makeshift guard tower. Two sentries were posted on top, and the only reason Sinon and I hadn't been spotted was because the sentry on our side was currently sleeping, as avatars do when their player exits the game outside of a designated safe town. The player probably stepped away from the game to use the bathroom, or something similar. After five minutes or so, the avatar would simply disappear.

But we couldn't bet on that. Sinon started aiming her sniper at the two. At this distance, the bullet could pass through both sentries with enough force that she wouldn't even have to aim; but instead of letting her fire, I motioned for her to lower her gun, and drew the knife on my belt. I sprinted, as quietly as I could, to the base of the tower.

I slipped the knife between my teeth and began to climb the side of the tower nearest to where Sinon remained. The old tower was mostly made of weaving lines of metal rather than smooth surfaces, so it was easy to climb. As I ascended, I both marveled at and was disgusted by the taste of the metal knife in my mouth. It was awesome that the game interacted with a player's body to such minute details, but come on. Metal just tastes gross.

Within a minute or two, I had climbed to the base of the platform, the edge of which ended about a foot behind my head, due to the tapering structure of the tower itself. I reached out, one hand at a time, until I had a hold of the edge while my feet remained on the tower. Slowly, I let my legs fall from the tower, letting all my weight rest on my hands. I hoisted hard, straining to pull the weight of my own body onto the platform.

Mock all you want. I'm a big guy, and I don't have the strongest arms on the planet.

Finally, and somewhat miraculously, I got up on to the platform without the alert sentry hearing me. The raiders had never been attacked before, so he must have fallen into the trap that most sentries fall into when things seldom occur around them: boredom.

I ignored the disconnected sentry, targeting first the one who could actually hear me. I ghosted up behind him as he leaned on the side of the platform, which was walled off on two sides. Quick as I could, I reached around his head, covering his mouth with my left hand as I jammed the knife into his back with my right. He jerked, his scream of shock muffled by my gloved hand. Unfortunately, his avatar was apparently designed to be a tough one, as he didn't immediately derezz like I thought he would. He snapped his head backwards into my nose, startling and shocking me enough to knock me backwards, losing my grip on him. He turned, but I managed to keep hold of the knife as it slid out of his back. I regained my balance after a stumbling a step, and at the same time he raised his single-shot rifle, aiming for my chest from maybe a foot away.

Time slowed once again, and the predictive line of fire had just begun to appear when I countered. I slashed upwards with the knife, connecting with the barrel of his gun in a shower of sparks. The gun jerked upwards, ruining his aim and upsetting his balance. With his weight already settled awkwardly backwards, I lashed out with my foot, the blow connecting the bottom of my boot with his chest. The kick blasted him off the platform, sending him screaming to the ground, where his body burst into shards of red and blue light on impact.

Breathing heavily, I turned to his comrade, whose body was slumped boneless against the side wall of the platform. I knifed him silently, smirking at the confusion the player would be met with when he returned to his fallen avatar.

My task done, I stepped to the edge of the platform, waving to where I could just make out the scope of Sinon's weapon on the top of the dune. I waved, giving her the hang-loose signal again as an all-clear. After I saw her stand and begin her trip to my position, I pulled a pull of binoculars out of my inventory, and turned, lying on my stomach on the opposite end of the platform, where I began a more detailed inspection of our quarry. I began by attempting to count individual human profiles, which I could just make out from this distance with the magnification of my binoculars.

I had reached twenty-five when I heard and felt Sinon lay on her stomach next to me. An electric tingle ran up my spine as she accidentally brushed up against my side, and clubbed down the Paleolithic need that flared in my gut.

Once I'd beaten down my inner Neanderthal, I returned to my observations. I knew Sinon would be watching through the scope of her sniper as well, and we both made our own unbiased observations before we began planning.

"How many can you see?" I asked, after several minutes of quiet monitoring.

Sinon's reply was instantaneous. She'd been expecting my question, I presumed. "I count twenty-seven on the grounds, scattered about. They're not keeping very vigilant watch, which means they aren't expecting anyone to attack, or at least not expecting them to get past this outpost. I assume they have others posted in the first few floors of the tower that's still standing."

I grunted an affirmative. "I can see heavy weapons on some of them. That giant bastard there has a minigun on the ground next to him. I've seen at least three rocket launchers, too. These guys mean business. We won't last long against them, even with the element of surprise. Your sniping can only go so far before one blows me up and they begin a manhunt for you. Sure, we'll take out a few in the opening seconds, but we can't possibly get them all in the firefight that would follow."

"We need a way to maximize the ambush, then," Sinon said. She was worried, I could hear it in her voice.

"Regretting taking this mission?" I asked.

Sinon was silent. I looked over at her, and saw that she was staring blankly, chewing on her bottom lip. Under normal circumstances, I might've found the look on her face to be idly coquettish, especially on someone as beautiful as her. But in this context, it merely worried me. Sinon had come across as stone-cold this whole time, and seeing her nervous was not so good for my morale.

"How did you plan on taking these guys by yourself, anyway?" I asked. "You knew how many there was going to be. I've seen you shoot. You're amazing, but no one's that good."

"I was hoping I could get a…friend of mine to help out," Sinon said, idly toying with her scope as she continued to stare at the stronghold. "He's focusing on another game right now, though."

A completely natural and ridiculous surge of jealousy ran through me before I mentally berated myself again. "And you still came here anyway? Without backup? Forgive me for saying that wasn't the most strategically sound decision."

Sinon speared me with a glare that nearly made me shrink back in fear. "I took the job," she said. "I intend to finish it."

I raised my hands in surrender. Even I could tell this wasn't a conversation that would end well for me. We both turned back toward the stronghold.

As I looked through my binoculars, trying to divine some way of surviving the impending suicide mission, something caught my eye.

"Sinon!" I said, pointing to what I'd seen. "Look where the fallen building is connected to one still standing." I felt Sinon's body shift next to mine as she turned her scope to the indicated area.

"I see it. Most of the raiders are camped in the shade there. So?"

"Look at the supports. They welded some beams to the fallen building and are using them like a tripod. If we could knock those out, we could drop the whole thing right onto their camp. Wipe out the bad guys, and more importantly, destroy their hideout so they can't use this area again once they all respawn."

I heard Sinon blow a large sigh. "That would be lovely, but how? Even my Hecate rifle doesn't have slugs big enough to take out those supports. And even if it did, you'd have to destroy all the struts at once, or they building would drop slowly enough that they'd be able to escape, and then they'd come kill us both."

I put my binoculars away, stashing them in their case on my belt. "Ah ha," I said, grinning maliciously. "But we _can _destroy them all at once." As I spoke, I pulled one of the C4 charges out of my inventory and bounced it in my hand.

Sinon's eyes widened when she saw what I was holding. I could practically hear her mind run through the possibilities. It was risky as hell, but it could work. Hell, it was probably our only chance.

"We don't want them to know about the bombs until the explosions start. That way, they won't get clear in time," I said. "I'll sneak in there and lay the charges. If I plant at least one charge on each of the beams, it should be enough to get the whole thing to topple."

"But the beams are welded to the second floor of the standing tower," Sinon replied, pointing to the joints where plates of steel held the beams in place. "How are you going to get out of there?"

"By dint of having grace, stealth and a shit-load of sniper support," I said. "I'll be stealthy going in, place the charges, and try to sneak back out. Once I'm free, you start sniping anyone you can see. That'll get their minds off of me and force them to take cover, right underneath the building that's about to come crashing down on their heads."

Sinon resumed chewing on her lip as she considered the plan. "You do realize that I can't give you any fire support while you're inside, right? The angles are all wrong. And if you get pinned down in there, the building will come down on your head as well as the raiders'."

"Gives me good incentive to get out of there without attracting attention, huh?"

Sinon nodded. She reached down to her own thigh holster, and pulled out a machine pistol. She pulled a silencer out of her inventory and screwed it into place, flipping the switch on the gun to single fire before handing it to me, grip first. "Here, take this. It'll be a good backup if someone's in there that you can't reach with your little pocket knife."

"Hey, don't diss a man's knife," I said, feigning indignation. "Besides, it's not the size of the blade, it's where you stick it that's important."

I realized just what I had said a moment after the words left my mouth. I wanted to slap myself. Sinon eyed me, quirking one light-blue eyebrow at me and smirking. The glint in her eye did not make my heart go pitter-patter at all. It was just jitters for the mission.

Shut up.

Deciding I had stuck my foot far enough into my mouth already, I stood, sticking the silenced pistol into the waistband of my pants. _DAMN, that thing is cold,_ I thought, and began to climb down the tower to make my way to the raider stronghold.

Sinon stopped me before my hands left the platform. "Max," she said, covering my hand with hers. "Thank you for this. And good luck."

At this point, my mouth decided to start running without the consent of my brain. "Is the part where the dashing hero gets a good-luck kiss before facing almost certain death?" I asked. I plastered a goofy grin on my face, hoping I could come off as silly if she turned murderous.

Instead of blowing my face off with her massive sniper rifle, she looked me dead in the eye and said, "Come back alive and we'll see."

Thus incentivized, I climbed down the tower and began making my way to the stronghold. I covered the ground at a light jog, eating up the distance with my long strides. It was almost a kilometer to the base, but I didn't rush it, and I swung wide to the southwest, so I could approach the far side of the standing tower, where I hoped there would be the fewest guards.

It took me most of ten minutes to get to the building itself, as I spent the last few minutes alternating between scoping out the building for guards with my binoculars and sprinting from sand dune to sand dune to stay hidden.

The raiders, either overly confident that their guard tower would give them ample warning of an incursion or too lazy to post extra security, had left this side of their fortress completely unguarded. _Works for me,_ I thought, dashing through a nearby door and entering the building proper.

The interior was that of a gutted office building, all empty spaces, dangling wires from broken light fixtures, and regularly spaced support columns. I walked as silently as I could, which was pretty damn silent, especially for someone my size. I held Sinon's silenced pistol in both hands, the sights lined up smoothly with my eye. Thanks to the miracle of video games, I didn't have to worry about fatigue in my arms, so I opted to move slowly, with my gun ready to fire at a moment's notice.

My caution was apparently unneeded on the first floor, as I didn't run into a single soul as I searched for a set of stairs to lead me to the second floor and the bomb sites. I stayed on alert nonetheless, as I could see signs of foot traffic in the sand and dust on the floor.

I found the stairs in the back of the building, on the right side wall relative to where I'd entered. I took the steps two at a time, still walking silently, eager to be in and out before bullets started flying. When I reached the door to the second floor, I eased it open as quietly as I could, my gun raised and ready. I opened the door to a crack, and peered through. It was far brighter on this level than on the first, as many of the windows overlooking the camp had been shot out. There were two men on this floor, facing one another at a table while they performed maintenance on a set of guns. They were both facing perpendicular to the door from which I watched them.

I eased the door open more, just enough for me to slip out and make a quick dash to the nearest support column. I pressed myself against it, praying that they hadn't seen me enter and that if they did look this way that my duster wouldn't billow out past the pillar and give me away.

Ok, so maybe dusters aren't great for sneaking. I still maintain that the badass imagery needed to be maintained.

From my new location, I could hear the men talking.

"What's the word?" the one on the right said as he worked on a Beretta. "Who are we hitting next?"

"Boss says another squad's coming this way from hunting. Our informant started leading them this way an hour ago. We'll leave here in thirty minutes to hit them. Guess it's a big group this time, hired bodyguards. Boss wants to hit them with everyone we can spare."

My gut clenched. Sinon and I had planned to take our time with our strike to maximize the damage. If the raiders were going to leave in a half hour, most of them would miss our trap. Sure, their stronghold would be dust, and there wouldn't be enough of them left here to hunt us down, but that would leave the unsuspecting group out in the open, sure to get slaughtered like my squad had.

I shook my head, snapping back into the moment. I glanced around the corner at the two, readying myself to strike. They were only twenty feet away, but they would be sure to see me in their peripheral vision if I tried to strike. I couldn't guarantee that I could shoot them both before they returned fire; and unlike my gun, they wouldn't be silenced shots. The rest of the raiders would hear, and my surprise attack would be ruined. I needed another plan.

I spotted my chance lying on the floor near my right boot. I crouched slowly, picking up the broken chunk of drywall at my feet. I checked the guards once more, turned around to the opposite side of the pillar, and threw the drywall beyond their table and to the side, so they wouldn't see what had flown past them.

Just as I had hoped, the two jumped in surprise, turning their attention to the sound of the noise, turning away from me and exposing their backs. As soon as their eyes were averted, I charged out from my hiding spot, pulling my knife as I went. I attacked the one on the right first, as he had pulled a gun at the sound of the drywall hitting the floor. I plunged my knife deep into his back, and his cry cut short as his avatar derezzed in a burst of light. His partner turned, stunned to see not his partner, but the barrel of my gun an inch from his forehead. Without preamble, I fired one shot at point blank, destroying him.

I paused as the avatars disappeared, listening intently for the sound of a commotion outside. If the raiders had heard anything, they would kill me for sure.

After several tense seconds, silence reigned; I relaxed, slipping the knife back into its sheath and the gun back into my belt. _OW. Son of a bitch, that thing's hot, _I thought. I sprinted to the northern side of the building, where the two structures connected. I slowed as I neared the edge, partially because I didn't want my frantic motions to catch the eye of some raider down below on the ground, but mostly because I really, _really_ hate heights and most of the friggin' windows on this side of the building had long ago broken, likely from the impact of the other building colliding into this one.

As I reached the edge, I peered down at the raider's encampment, crawling prone on my belly to keep as low a profile as I could. The raiders were indeed mobilizing, and I could see them gathering supplies, weapons, and ammo before splitting into teams of six. They were pulling all of the stops on this raid; if I didn't hurry, our trap wouldn't catch them.

I backed away from the edge, and focused above me, where the structures were touching. The raiders had welded plates of steel to three points at the joint, and each plate was supported by a large I-beam that reached all the way to the ground, thirty feet below. The welds were solid, but imperfect. I was confident I'd brought enough firepower to complete my task.

I planned out my bomb placement as quickly as I could, then took one of the chairs from the table and started working on the easternmost joint. Between the chair and my height, I could just reach each point, and I used two blocks of C4 on each brace, attaching a timer to every block.

_How much time do I need to get out of here? _I thought. I certainly didn't want to be caught in my own explosion, but I still needed to catch the raiders below in the blast. I set the timers for ten minutes, praying I hadn't given them too much time to escape.

_I'll just have to give them a good reason to stay, I suppose._

I synced up a timer on my heads-up display to the bomb timers, and the numbers 9:46 appeared in my peripheral vision and began ticking away. I grabbed the table the two raiders had been using earlier and wrangled it to the edge, tipping it on its side so the legs faced inwards, the thick wooden tabletop facing the outside. I crouched behind it, and pulled my assault rifle off my back. _Here's to hoping Sinon's watching, _I thought as I sighted down on the raiders below. _I'm gonna need a hell of a lot of support in a moment._

I sighted down on one raider standing apart from the rest, waiting for his fellows by their makeshift gate to their compound. I took a deep breath, and fired a three-round burst at his head when the targeting system tightened as my aim settled. The gunshots were deafening in the silence, and the raider's avatar burst into light as the unanticipated rounds blasted him away. I targeted the next closest raider, a massive brute who had been in the process of loading minigun bullets into an ammo case, and blew him away as well.

As the timer in my display hit 9:12, return fire began peppering the walls and roof around me. I kept firing, relying less on precise aim and more on snap-shot reflexes, keeping as many of the raiders pinned as I could. The high ground offered me a massive advantage over the raiders, and I took out a few more with bursts of fire before I was forced to duck behind the table to reload.

As I popped back up from cover, I saw a team of raiders sprinting for the building, and I could only assume they were going to enter and rush upstairs to confront me from inside. I targeted the group of six, taking down one before red predictive lines of fire painted themselves all over my face. I ducked down, dodging the shots, but not before I saw another of the encroaching raiders blown away by a massive sniper round. _Thank you, Sinon._

I sprung up once again, trading fire with those below. The incursion team was no longer in sight, and I assumed at least a few had made it inside. I plugged a raider just as he pulled a pin on a grenade, and the resulting explosion threw the raiders into chaos, dust billowing everywhere. Using that as cover, I sprinted away from my spot behind the table, slinging my assault rifle onto my back and pulling my sawn-off shotgun from its holster underneath my left arm. I secreted myself in the shadows near the door to the stairs, hiding behind the remains of a desk, out of sight of the door. I could hear footsteps charging up the stairs, and by the time the clock in my view read 7:20, the raiders burst through the door, eschewing stealth in their haste to kill me. I waited for the first three to pass, and as the fourth entered the room, all of them walking forward (and away from me), I rose from cover. I shot the last one in the back from five feet away, the buckshot tearing through him and the man behind him in a single blast. As they derezzed, I shot the other barrel toward the second man, catching him in the face as he turned. The fourth man had turned around by that point, and I barreled into him, tackling him to the floor and pulling my knife. I stabbed down at his chest, but he caught my wrists, straining to hold the blade away from his heart.

The man was massive, nearly twice my size, and had strength to match his bulk. I pushed down as hard as I could, weight and leverage working to counter his raw muscle, and for a time I pushed the blade closer and closer to him. Then, he kicked me right where the sun don't shine, knocking the wind from me and pushing me back. He shoved the knife away from himself, planted a boot on my sternum, and hurled me off of him.

I flew several feet through the air and landed hard on my back, dazed. I looked up after a second, and saw the man back on his feet, charging at me with a knife in hand so large I could easily deem it more of a machete.

As the man barreled down on me, I pulled my Desert Eagle from my thigh holster and fired three shots as soon as the barrel was pointing past me. My first bullet went wide, the .50 caliber round taking a large chunk out of a support beam, but the other two bullets connected, punching through his stomach and chest, straight through the heavy body armor he wore.

The raider disappeared in a flash of light, and I let my head and gun fall to the floor, trying to catch my bearings. I could hear the sound of gunfire outside as the raiders aimed panic fire at my former firing location, and the louder, systematic booms that signaled Sinon's sniper shots. The timer in my HUD read 4:34.

4:20.

4:07.

3:55.

At 3:37, my brain finally snapped into focus. I had less than four minutes to get the hell out of the building and away from the fort, which was about to be crushed under its own weight. I shot to my feet, collecting my handgun and slipping it back into its holster. I rushed to the window opposite the raider's camp, on the side of the building from which I had originally entered. Below, a group of six raiders waited, their guns trained on the door I had used not twenty minutes ago. _Damn it, _I thought. _They figured out where I came from. _As I dithered there, the clock ticking, one of the raiders happened to glance up and see me standing in the window. He pointed and yelled, and suddenly predictive lines from a half dozen weapons appeared all over my body.

"SHIT!" I yelled, throwing myself to the side. Bullets tore through the window, showering me with glass. Continuing my tirade of profanities, I scrambled away on all fours, only stopping when I quite literally bumped into a wall.

I slumped against said wall, sitting on my ass and breathing hard. "Think!" I yelled to myself, not even bothering to internalize my words anymore. "They know where you are, they know they didn't kill you, so the logical thing to do would be to hunt your ass down while leaving guys at the door so you can't get out. You can't ambush the guys outside, because they'll be expecting it and they'll plug you like a turkey if you try. And you can't get the jump on the guys coming in because you did that to the other squad, so the only option is..." I trailed off as my next logical step became evident. I glanced over to the other window, the one from which I had fired down upon the raiders in their fort - the side of the building that was going to blow up in exactly one minute and twenty seconds.

"Oh, this is such a horrible idea," I muttered.

Time seemed to slow as I made my choice. I lurched up from my sitting position, and started my sprint for the window. I didn't rush for the open one I'd used earlier, as the table was still in the way and I wasn't confident I could vault over it and still land clean once I hit the ground below.

Then again, I wasn't sure I'd land clean anyway.

As I sprinted past the stairway, the door slammed open and the first raider took a step into the room. He was hefting a combat shotgun, and from the size of it, it probably fired slugs that could stop a charging rhino wearing Kevlar. He fired from the hip, and the fact that he didn't take the time to aim properly saved me.

The buckshot narrowly missed me, ripping through the back of my coat instead of my intestines. the force of the blast spun me almost a full circle, and I ended up with my left side facing the man, the window to my back. The coat, having taken more damage than it could possibly sustain, burst into the same motes of light that destroyed avatars did and disappeared.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I bellowed, as I pulled my handgun once more from my left thigh. "I LIKED THAT COAT!"

My ire was expressed in a trio of .50 caliber bullets that tore through the offending raider, destroying him and the man behind him in a burst of light.

I completed the impromptu spin, stumbling as I did. (Big guy, not graceful. We covered this earlier.) I continued running, daring to look at the timer as I did.

42 seconds left.

When I was five feet from the window, I trained my gun on it, emptying the rest of the clip at it in a rapid sequence of one-handed shots. The glass splintered, my erratic shots failing to destroy it cleanly. I bellowed wordlessly as I hit the opaque glass, raising my hands in front of my face in an instinctive reaction. It shattered on contact, and while I would like to think that I looked badass, like in the movies, glass clinging to my body as I fell gracefully, I wouldn't actually know what I looked like.

What? You would've closed your eyes too, don't pretend you wouldn't.

I hit the ground hard, and I tried to roll with the impact to reduce the force. Thank God for video game mechanics; instead of breaking an ankle, my health simply dropped precipitously, down to nearly 25% of maximum.

I scrambled to my feet and began running, and by some miracle managed to keep the presence of mind to reload my pistol, remembering that these were the last shots I had for it.

By the time the timer hit 20 seconds, I made it to the front gate. Four raiders huddled behind cover, their backs facing to me, as one was hastily assembling a massive Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle, obviously with the intent of counter-sniping Sinon. Not daring to slow at all, I yelled out a war cry that, in my current mental state, probably sounded more like the plaintive cry of a housecat at bath-time would make and charged them, firing at the men as they huddled together.

I was too panicked to aim properly, but surprise and adrenaline were on my side. The first bullets took the would-be sniper in the head, destroying him utterly, and the man nearest him, a scrawny guy with a pair of sub-machine guns, fell to another pair of erratic bullets through the chest. The other two men spun, one holding an assault rifle that was exactly like mine, the other toting a drum-fed machine gun, the massive ones that fire hundreds of bullets in seconds, and brought their guns to bear on me.

As they turned, big-gun guy exploded into sparks, annihilated by Sinon's precision fire. The last man targeted me before I targeted him, and a trio of bullets tore through my shoulder, ruining my aim. My shots went wide, the last bullets in my gun smacked into the sandbags behind him, missing him by inches.

Miraculously, the bullets did not kill me; I continued my charge, barreling into the man in a wild frenzy just as the timer hit 15 seconds. I bashed him in the temple with my gun, screaming incoherently. I probably looked like a madman, but I didn't give a shit at that point. I just wanted _out_, and this dickweed was in my way. After a baker's dozen pistol-whips, the man slumped, dazed, and I sprinted full-speed out of the gates, as other raiders throughout the compound began targeting me, drawn by the sound of my gunfire at the gate.

At ten seconds, bullets peppered the walls of the gate behind me.

At seven seconds, the sand around me burst into tiny eruptions at the force of the rounds as they struck closer to the mark.

At 4 seconds, a single shot tore through my right calf, throwing it out from under me and sending me to the ground on my back. I rolled onto my stomach, and covered my head with my hands.

3.

2.

1.

The explosion was deafening, and the sand underneath me jumped and bucked like an enraged bull, and all I could do was ride it out. The explosion wasn't a sound so much as it was a _force _on my ears, and it was almost enough to drown out the sound of screeching metal as the support beams were ripped apart by the blast. I began to scramble away, army crawling on my elbows and knees until I rounded the small sand dune in front of me. I spun around on the other side of the dune, staring at the fortress as laid on my belly on the sand.

The fallen building, shaken loose by the blast and now without its additional support, shook like an avalanche was tearing it apart from the inside. It began to fall, slowly at first, but like a massive redwood being harvested, it picked up speed as it fell. The scream of tearing metal resounded through the world, ending abruptly as the building came crashing down, crushing everything under it. The impact shook the ground even more than the original explosion had, and a massive cloud of dust burst out from the site like the winds of hell. I ducked behind my sand dune, and the wind tore overhead, taking the top of the dune off before it ended, whistling lightly in the silence that followed.

After several seconds, I peeked back over the dune, marveling at the sight. The building had fragmented on impact, and the second tower, the one that had been supporting the mostly-downed building, had lost nearly an entire face. The side of the building that had taken the blast had simply sloughed off, like soap running down the side of a car as it was washed. The raider fortress was utterly crushed, wiped off the map. No one would be able to operate from this place ever again.

I could just pick out the shapes of a few surviving raiders stumbling away from the wreckage, completely shell-shocked. I almost felt sorry for them as Sinon took them down with a trio of perfect shots.

Almost, but not really.

I flopped onto my back, exhausted. It was strange; I should have been giddy, having survived a suicide mission. I should have felt shaken, residually terrified, and elated all at once.

All I really felt was naked without my coat. Even though I was wearing fatigues, a bulletproof vest, boots, and enough ammo and guns to make Arnold Schwarzenegger get penis envy, I still felt naked and bereft. I guess I needed to get a new duster.

I don't know how long I sat there in the sun, feeling the sun burn down on my face. (I must have lost my hat at some point, too. Damn.) After a while, I heard footsteps approaching. I didn't bother opening my eyes, guessing who it was. I heard Sinon sit down beside me, and heard her set down her massive sniper, as it was way too big for her to have on her back while she sat. We sat in silence for a couple minutes before my mouth decided to started talking of its own accord again.

"Well, that went well," I said, throwing in an exaggerated sigh. I linked my hands behind my head, pretending to relax in a state of confident nonchalance. I thought I heard Sinon give a tiny chuckle.

I cracked one eye, glancing at her. I was shocked to see a smile on her face. Well, I say smile. It was more of a one-sided slight raising of one corner of her mouth. I got the feeling that for her, that was the same as a belly laugh. She glanced over at me, and I grinned like a maniac.

"We should do it again sometime," I said.

The insanity of that statement was enough to get an honest-to-god genuine smile out of her. "Yes," she said. "We should."

With that, she leaned over, placing one hand on my chest and kissed me. Even in a video game, her lips were soft, warm, and slightly chapped from the dry air. I didn't dare move my body, worried I'd scare her off, even as I kissed her back. It wasn't a passionate make-out session; it was heartfelt and gentle.

We parted, looking at each other's eyes. I hadn't noticed how intensely blue her eyes were; they were almost shining of their own accord, seeming to switch between blue and light green. They held my attention for a long while before I spoke again.

"You owe me a new coat."

**Author's Note:**

Thank you to anyone who reads this! I really hope you enjoyed it. I've been trying to write things in the first person, and my recent obsession with anime made Sword Art Online a good choice for this attempt. Let me know what you think! I enjoyed Max's character more than I thought I would, so now I'm toying with the idea of making a series of stories involving him and Sinon, and maybe adding more characters along the way. Thoughts?


	2. Chapter 2: Wolf Among Us

Wolf Among Us

"Max! Hurry up, jackass!"

I looked up from my open menu screen and directed an obscene gesture towards my rather irritating teammate before returning my attention to the messenger screen in front of me.

"Jesus, man! Stop talking to your girlie and let's hunt some shit!"

Without looking up, the matching finger on my other hand mirrored the first as I spoke to the screen. "Don't mind them. Boys will be boys, you know. And boys are NOTHING IF NOT JEALOUS."

A round of guffaws emanated from my team, which I loftily ignored. I did not, however, ignore the giggle that came from my display. "That's it. Keep the children in line. Tell the boys they'd better take care of you or I'll hunt them down myself."

I rolled my eyes in mock indignation. "I can't tell them _that._ They'll think you have to hold my hand through everything."

The voice on the other end of the line turned smug. "They would be right."

"Oh, what's that, Sinon? YOU'RE BREAKING UP I'LL HAVE TO CALL YOU BACK BYE."

I went through the motions to close the menu, collapsing the pop-up screen in front of me. I intentionally kept the chat going, however, and the conversation transferred to a small earpiece that manifested in my ear.

"When's your squeeze going to tag along with us on a hunt, Max?" asked Marcus, who was grinning ear to ear.

"Ja, I wouldn't mind having something other than your ugly mug to stare at for once," added Hans, his accent making every 'w' he spoke into a 'v'.

"She's shy, all right? And besides, even I know better than to bring a girl around you pricks. All you'd do is scare her off." My answer was met with another chorus of chuckles, as well as a few mutterings along the lines of 'oh, he's adorable'. I rolled my eyes and blew a long-suffering sigh, letting the boys have their fun at their leader's expense. "Ok, you assholes. Time for your pre-flight check - and hurry it up. We're losing daylight."

I studied each of my teammates in turn, as was my pre-mission habit. I'd been voted the de facto leader of our squad, and even though this was just a game, I took my duties seriously. It behooved me to check everyone's readiness level before each hunt.

Hans was our resident bruiser; taller than everyone else on the team (except me), he was built on the same scale that Abrams tanks were made. He was our heavy weapons man, and today he had brought along an M240 machine gun, modified for larger rounds, that sported a small tripod to improve stability. He wore black fatigues, a dark green shirt, and a bandolier packed with enough grenades to make the whole team nervous he'd blow up if we sneezed on him. He had a rather stereotypical Mohawk that he had colored pure white. He spoke with an overblown German accent that I was 95% sure he faked. He'd been partying up with us for a couple months now, and I was glad for his company. He kept a cool head while under fire; he had sharp eyes, and a sharper mind than one would expect. Not to mention he was strong enough to carry a shitload of loot, which benefitted us all.

Tendo was our demolitions man. He was unremarkable in every way. He was average height, had an average build, and a plain face. His hair was buzzed short, and was a mousy brown color. He wore a white shirt under a brown tactical vest, with matching brown pants and plain boots. He sported one of our team's laser rifles, a futuristic white and silver number that looked like a combination between a laser pointer and a normal assault rifle. He also sported an oversized backpack that I knew contained enough C4 to level a building.

I'm not kidding. He really could level a building; I once used his ordinance to do exactly that.

Tendo had been with us for a month now, which, to my knowledge, was the longest he'd ever been with one group. It wasn't that his other groups kicked him out or anything; he just didn't get along with them very well, so as soon as he began to feel out of place, he'd simply leave whatever team he was on. So far he seemed to be doing well with us, and his peculiar preference towards pyrotechnics was something I always enjoyed seeing.

Marcus, the one who had been heckling me while I was chatting, was my wingman. We'd been friends since we were kids, and he was the only one of this squad that I knew back in the real world as well. Marcus was a half a foot shorter than me. He wore his black hair in a ponytail that was worn both long and low. He wore heavy body armor, and though to me he looked like a camouflaged version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man if the Marshmallow man was covered in a carapace of ceramic strike plates, I'd seen his armor take grenade hits and stay together. He, like Tendo, carried a laser rifle, but had recently decided to carry around a ballistic weapon as well, in this case a classic Colt .45, an old-school handgun that was simple, accurate and reliable. Marcus always looked self-assured and cocky, and had designated himself as the squad's resident fool-slash-jackass. I usually let him have his fun, often at my expense, partially because it kept my head from swelling too much, and also because as I understood it, making fun of your commanding officer was a soldier's sacred right. Far be it from me to tromp all over tradition.

Lee was the new guy, only having joined our group a few weeks back. He was tall and lanky like me, though he was the skinnier. His movements reminded me of someone who practiced martial arts, all grace and lithe power. He was a close-weapons expert, and our stealthiest member. He wore all black, but eschewed any kind of armor for a stealth suit that had limited, chameleon-like capabilities. If Lee moved slowly enough, tiny cameras in the suit took pictures of his surroundings and then projected them outwards from his suit, creating an effect that rendered him nearly invisible on most backgrounds. He carried a pair of silenced pistols with extended magazines, along with a combat knife and, I kid you not, a lightsaber. Well, I say lightsaber, but if they were actually called that in this game, Lucasfilms would probably sue the hell out of the developers. Thus, here in GGO, weapons like the one he used were known as 'photon blades'. It was still a sword made of energy and light, however, and I'd seen Lee carve through armored targets with its azure blade. Lee was usually a talker, but as soon as we left on a mission he always zoned out, barely speaking to any of us. Right now, he sat motionless save for one hand, his face mostly hidden by the helmet he wore, which always reminded me of the members from Daft Punk. He twirled the hilt of his deactivated sword in his right hand, spinning it in dizzying flourishes I could barely follow.

I checked my own reflection in a nearby pane of glass. My avatar can best be compared to a telephone pole. I'm head and shoulders taller than most other people, but I'm slender. I hold to the old spaghetti-western look, my fatigues and body armor covered by a black leather duster that hangs down to my calves. I wore a matching black hat that keeps the sun out of my eyes, and I keep a bandana tied around my neck which I pull up over my face either for anonymity or to keep dust out of my mouth. I carried my usual assault rifle, an M4 carbine with a shiny new grenade launcher, along with a new revolver, a Smith and Wesson 500. The revolver had replaced my old Desert Eagle, which had carried nearly double the rounds of the 500. However, each round from the new gun had the same approximate power as a cruise missile, so I was willing to make that trade. Recently, I'd also started carrying a sniper rifle, a German-made Blaser, courtesy of my girlfriend, who had been giving me lessons. The excess weight from carrying two full-sized guns and a pistol made it so my character couldn't run very fast or jump very much, but the benefits from my armament were too powerful to ignore.

Our party moved out, heading for a hunting spot an hour's walk away. Marcus took point, and the rest of us followed his lead. I took rear guard, following the other three, who walked spaced out from each other, just in case someone hit us with something explosive. As I walked along, I continued speaking softly with Sinon via my earpiece.

"So you're sure you don't want to tag along with us for this hunt? You know you're welcome to join up any time."

"Is that so? What happened to your buddies scaring away your poor, defenseless girlfriend?" Sinon asked. I could hear the laugh behind her words.

"Well, you might be defenseless, but you know I only want you along for that big-ass cannon you carry," I said, in my best deadpan.

"Ha ha. You're hilarious," Sinon said. "You know if I was nearby when you said that, the Hecate's barrel would be up your ass by now."

"An excellent point," I said. "In that case, it's probably a good thing poor defenseless you didn't come along." We both laughed. Hans, who was the closest to me in line, heard me and looked back, his expression smug. I directed another one-fingered salute his way. At this rate, my hand was going to get tired before I even fired a shot.

"So what are you going to be up to while I indulge in my dashing heroics?" I asked.

"So now they're dashing heroics? I thought the guys just brought you along for comic relief."

I swear she and I actually get along. It just doesn't always show to the outside observer.

"You're hilarious. My question still stands, though."

Sinon laughed again, which did not make my heart go pitter-pat at all. Damn my hormones. "I'm going on a hunt of my own. A… friend of mine called in a favor. He's tracking something, needed a second pair of eyes."

I suppressed a flash of jealousy as best I could. I knew little about the 'friend' she mentioned; they were close, I knew that much. And while I trusted Sinon, there's always a small, poisonous part of your mind that refuses to shut up about those kinds of things.

"Funny," I said. "That's almost exactly what I asked if you could do for my squad."

"You're quite right," Sinon replied. "Except you have a total of five guys who can watch each other's backs, and my friend has only himself. You don't need my help as much as he does."

The mild rebuke in her tone stung, but I knew I'd deserved it because of my comment, so I took the hit stoically. "You're right. Plus, this way I get a chance to show off those thrilling heroics, right?"

Sinon giggled again. I took it as a reward. "That's right, handsome. Go be my hero. Just be careful, all right?"

"You too, good-looking. Call me if you need anything."

"Same here. Good luck."

I switched off my headset, and the communicator disappeared from my ear. I walked in silence with my team for a whole minute before Marcus spoke up.

"You finally off the phone, Max? Christ! Finally, we can have our music. Crank that shit, boss!"

I rolled my eyes into the back of my head, but complied. I brought up my menu screen, and spliced my audio files into the team chat. Our team's playlist, a strange combination of metal, rock, and random show tunes, began blasting from an invisible loudspeaker. The guys started rocking out almost instantly, and if I'm honest, I sang along to whatever words I knew as well. If anyone had been watching, I'm sure the sight of five heavily armed men belting out the lyrics to "Be a Man" would either have scared them off, or left them laughing too hard to be able to attack us. Either way, it kept us safe, right? Right.

Nothing jumped out us as we trudged along through the evening heat, and eventually the scenery morphed from a sand and dust-laden forsaken city to an area full of towering redwood trees. The tallest of the trees stretched up farther than my eyes could follow, and even though I knew that they were all just digital creations, their majesty still took my breath away.

I tore my eyes away from the foliage, and noticed my team had their eyes glued upwards as well. I let them glance for a minute more before I gave a sharp whistle, catching their attention. Four heads swiveled toward me, and four sets of eyes locked onto mine. Well, three sets, and Lee's creepy tinted visor.

"Ok guys," I said, trying not to speak too loudly. I'm new at this whole 'be a leader' thing, ok? "From here on out, it's uncharted territory. All accounts about this monster indicate that it's probably a Hydra, and so far no one's been able to beat this thing. It's killed everyone so fast so far they haven't been able to glean much knowledge about it other than it's big, fast, and its hide repels bullets, so we've got to be on the lookout for weak spots. Weapons check!"

The next five minutes were filled with the metallic sounds of gun maintenance. Magazines were ejected and inspected before being replaced in their respective guns; bullets were chambered, safeties switched off, and reserve ammo was situated close at hand so reloads could be completed as fast as possible.

I checked the sights on my sniper rifle, making tiny calibrations so the scope was zeroed for a slightly closer distance than such a gun would normally have. I made sure the hammer worked on my revolver, and checked the magazine of my assault rifle with practiced hands. I also loaded the grenade launcher attachment with a grenade, snapping the ordinance into place with a satisfying _CLICK. _I kept the sniper slung over my back, the assault rifle in my hands and the revolver in a thigh holster. I took a deep breath, steadying my nerves.

"Everyone set?" I asked. A ragged chorus of 'Hoo-rahs' answered me, and I rolled my eyes. "Jesus, guys. We're nerds, not Navy Seals. Tone it down." The guys chuckled, dispelling a small amount of the tension in the air.

We advanced into the forest proper, maintaining a westerly course. We weren't exactly sure where the creature was, as it was reported to patrol a large area inside the forest, and it moved constantly. We were all on high alert, and I fought the urge to ask Sinon to come and join us. Tiny she may be, but my girl kicks ass with her gargantuan sniper rifle. Still, she had a job to perform as well, as much as I didn't like it.

Not to mention my pride was on the line, here. My testosterone doesn't usually do the thinking for me, but once it takes over, mules could learn a lesson from me about stubbornness.

As my thoughts drifted to a certain blue-haired lady friend of mine, I accidently let my focus on our surroundings slip. As a result, I was unaware of the massive beast descending from the trees behind me until something huge, scaly, and supernaturally strong slammed into my back with all the force of a runaway train. My body flew through the air as my brain struggled to catch up with events, and both actions came to an abrupt end as I slammed face first into another redwood. Everything went black temporarily on impact.

When I came to, the first thing I noticed was that the world had turned upside down during my nap. The shrill tone of a low-health alert sounded in a rapid sequence, syncing up with the flashing red of my health bar, which showed that I was down to less than 10% of my maximum health. I opened my eyes groggily, wincing at the sunlight that filtered through the tree canopy beneath me.

_Wait, _I thought. _Beneath me?_

It was then that I realized that it was me who was upside down, my back against a tree trunk, my feet in the air and my neck supporting the weight of my body against the ground. That certainly explained a few things. I rolled over, thanking whoever designed this game and praising their decision not to incorporate pain replicators in the design. I scrambled to my feet, checking my guns as I did, and found that they were all still on my person hanging from their respective straps. I activated my team radio again and shouted, "Status!"

"SNAFU!" Marcus shouted into his mic. "WHERE THE _HELL_ ARE YOU?"

"On my way!" I responded, and began running back the way I had flown, following the sound of gunfire. As I ran, I passed the tree that had taken my initial impact. A chunk of bark three feet across had been ripped off of the side of the tree, and I could only surmise that I had hit that spot at an angle, rebounded off, and continued flying like a ragdoll before I hit the final obstacle. _Jesus, I can officially say I nearly destroyed a tree with my face. That's… almost impressive._

I sprinted the rest of the way back to my team, and after a few seconds, found that SNAFU didn't even begin to cover the mess we were in.

The hydra was massive, occupying most of the grove we were in with its sheer bulk. The truly impressive part was that before it had appeared, there hadn't _been_ a grove here. As it fought, the hydra bashed into another redwood, knocking down the 500 foot tree and destroying it utterly. The beast was a mottled green, streaked with uneven lines of brown coloring. It stood on four stumpy legs that were as wide around as the surrounding trees, and a thick tail extended at least twenty feet behind it. Its head, or rather, _heads_ were waving around at astonishing speeds at the end of long, flexible necks. Each head was tipped with a sharp beak-like mouth that was lined with inner teeth. Two beady black eyes on each head locked on to my team members, who were frantically trying to avoid getting stepped on, bitten, slapped with its tail, or get hit by the occasional globs of what appeared to be acid it spit at them. I presume it was acid, at least, judging by the horrid smell, mucus-y green color, and the fact that another fallen tree was currently getting reduced to a pulpy pile of smoking goo by a massive glob of the stuff.

My team was spread out around the monster in a loose circle, alternating their fire in an attempt to constantly have the beast on the defensive so it couldn't focus its power long enough to score a kill. It was a smart tactic, allowing an experienced team to maximize damage while minimizing the effectiveness of the target.

Against the hydra, it was less effective.

The multitude of heads lashing about kept my team from focusing on one target well enough to score a decent hit. Bullets sparked off of its necks, beaks, and tough scales, but none managed to penetrate its hide or hit a vulnerable eye. As I approached firing range, I saw one head strike like lightning, and it snatched Marcus in its jaws. Marcus disappeared from sight from the waist up, and I heard him screaming profanities inside the monster's mouth. It lifted him off the ground, intent on swallowing him whole.

As the hydra's head tilted backwards, something odd happened. A space about a foot down its neck suddenly bulged and then retracted, like a bullfrog when it croaks. Just as suddenly, the head snapped sideways and opened its beak, flinging Marcus free. He rebounded off a nearby tree and slid to the ground, shaken but alive. I guess the Stay-Puft armor was good for something after all. Marcus's blaster was smoking and its end glowed red. He must have shot the inside of the thing's throat.

Meanwhile, the head that had attempted to eat him was screaming, a high-pitched wail that raised my hackles. Smoke poured out of its mouth, and unless I was sorely mistaken, all of the other hydra heads moved more slowly. I was suddenly hit with inspiration.

The heads weren't the weak point. Its _throats _were. That was why the other hunting teams had failed against it so miserably. It was nearly impossible to get an angle on the inside of the beak of a monster that stood nearly fifty feet tall. The only way to aim down its throats was to get swallowed, or at least chewed on, like Marcus had. Unless…

"HANS!" I screamed, and the big man turned to me mid-shot. I pointed to the low-hanging branches of a nearby tree. "Get me to high ground!"

To his credit, Hans figured it out almost instantly. He pulled a flashbang grenade off his bandolier, pulled the pin with his teeth, and cast it towards the hydra with an almost casual-looking throw. The explosion stunned a few of the closest heads, and Hans used its distraction as cover long enough to reach me. He sprinted to the base of the tree and slung his rifle over his shoulder before turning to face me. He crouched slightly and laced his fingers together before nodding at me. "Mach schnell!" he shouted. I could only assume that was German for 'hurry the hell up'.

I did as commanded and sprinted towards him, jumping off of the step he had made with his hands. He threw me upwards at the same time, and I was launched nearly fifteen feet into the air, high enough to catch one of the low branches under my armpits. After a few mad seconds of scrambling, I made it to my feet on the branch, and started ascending the tree as fast as I could. I cursed the added weight from my extra weaponry, but it would take too long to try and change things in my inventory now. All I could do was climb at my handicapped speed and pray I could get high enough to enact my plan before my team was killed.

I climbed for a subjective eternity as my teammates struggled to survive down below. Finally, I reached a level equal to the height of the hydra's heads when they were at full extension. I unlimbered my M4 and braced my back against the tree, turning towards the beast. "HEY! SLYTHERIN!" I shouted, trying to get its attention. I felt stupid trying to talk to a monster, but what the hell. "Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries!"

A pair of beady black eyes turned toward me, more suddenly than I expected. I guess if you want to taunt someone, insulting them with lines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the way to go. I sighted down on the head, but didn't fire just yet. I had to time this just right.

The head swayed in front of me, its eyes locked on mine, and it hissed like a kettle boiling on the stove. It reminded me of a pissed-off cobra without the hood. You know, if a cobra's head could be bigger than your entire body and be attached to a dozen other heads just like it.

We continued to stare at each other, daring the other to move.

To my shame, I'm the one who broke first.

What? It's a gigantic fucking evil snake-devil hydra thingy that just tried to swallow my friend whole. I'm not Batman; I don't have nerves of steel.

I screamed incoherently and my finger locked on the trigger, firing full automatic rounds into the thing's face without consideration for insignificant factors like ammo conservation or aim. Bullets pinged off of its scales, beak, and head, but none struck home. After a moment, my gun ran dry, and at the sound of the dry, empty clacks of the vacant chamber sounded in the canopy. The hydra's eyes narrowed, and it had a look in its eyes that I could have sworn was pleasure, like it knew that I had wasted my bullets. Its mouth opened wide and shot forward, having nothing to fear from my gun.

It should have been worried about my grenade launcher.

I triggered the launcher as soon as its mouth opened, its fetid breath washing over me like a polluted cloud. The grenade flew in a beautiful arc, disappearing into the thing's maw. After a split second, it detonated.

What followed would be etched in my memory for a long time. The head continued on its trajectory towards me, and with another curse I launched myself off of the branch and into the air in a leap of faith. My arms pinwheeled, and by pure providence I grabbed hold of another nearby branch with my right hand, dangling loose as I turned towards the hydra's head, which I assumed would continue following me.

I was wrong. The only reason the head had continued towards me initially was momentum. The grenade had detonated a few feet down its throat, and the explosion had blown the head clean off. Smoke billowed out of the severed neck, and not for the first time I blessed the designers for their choice not to incorporate gore into this game. Red fractals of light emanated from the end of its neck, and the severed head hit the ground, bursting into shards of red and blue light that disappeared a few moments later.

I heard cheers from my team, and the hydra's heads moved even slower now than after Marcus shot into its neck. I managed to swing onto a nearby branch, and activated my radio once more. "Target the inside of its necks!" I yelled. "Hans, try and get grenades down its throat when it opens its mouth! Marcus, use your beam weapon to try and blind it! Lee, see what you can do with your blade- that thing can cut through steel, see how it works on scales! Tendo, I want you to rig a time-release bomb and meet me behind that rotten tree behind you ASAP!"

My team shouted another rounds of hoo-rahs at my orders, and I didn't even bother mocking them this time.

The next few minutes were filled with me making my uncoordinated way down the tree to the ground, and epic amounts of badassery from my team. But hey, I only fell the last five feet or so down to the ground, which wasn't too bad for me. Last time I tried to get down from high ground I busted through a second-story window and hit the ground with all the grace of a fallen brick.

I sprinted to the rendezvous spot I'd set for Tendo, watching my team go to work as I did. I marveled as I saw one head shoot towards Marcus again, who sidestepped the clumsy strike and fired his laser rifle point-blank into its eye. It roared in pain, and Hans used the opportunity to pull the pins on a trio of grenades and shove them one handed down its throat before the duo jumped away. The grenades detonated a moment later, and the head de-rezzed just like the first.

I stared in shock as another head shot towards Lee, who simply stood there and let himself get swallowed whole. As the head tipped back, I saw its neck convulse as the Hydra swallowed him whole. A bulge that I assumed was Lee moved slowly down its neck before abruptly stopping. A burst of blue light sprang through its scales, and I recognized the shine of Lee's blade. It swept around in a circle, cutting through the scales of its neck like wet tissue paper, severing the head completely. As the head sprang free from its neck, Lee threw himself free of the section of neck still attached to the head, spinning in a smooth somersault and landing like a cat on his feet. He then stood there with balls of nonchalant steel as the head burst into light behind him.

By the time I made the rendezvous with Tendo, three heads were gone and the hydra was moving slow enough that the team had no trouble dodging its attacks. Tendo was crouched over his backpack, his hands flying over a pair of blocks I recognized as C4. I slid to a stop next to him. "Isn't the bomb ready yet?" I snapped, my voice high and tight with fear.

Bite me. Battle is scary.

"A few more seconds," he said, his voice terse. Normally Tendo had all the spine of a worm when confronted by someone, but when working on explosives, nothing could shake him.

"I want it rigged to blow on a fifteen-second timer," I said. I clicked on my radio again, and said, "Lee, rendezvous here, now."

I sat quiet for a moment as Tendo worked, and turned only when Lee appeared next to us. I explained what I wanted him to do.

Lee nodded to me, silent during battle as always. After another quiet half-minute, Tendo held up his handiwork- two blocks of C4 strapped together, and attached to their respective detonators was a timer that blinked cheerily at fifteen seconds. A helpful red button was connected to the timer, and Tendo handed the package to me, saying, "Press the button, and then wait for the boom."

"Yes, thank you. I assumed that much," I said, voice dry. "Good work. Get back out there and help Marcus aim for the eyes with lasers." Tendo sprang up and ran back for the battle, leaving Lee and me there.

"Ready?" I asked, pulling my revolver with one hand and hefting the bomb in the other.

Lee nodded, and thumbed the activation stud on his sword, bringing it to life with a buzzing hum. I held up three fingers, counting down steadily, leaving my middle finger up as the number 1.

As soon as my last finger fell, we both shot to our feet and sprinted around opposite sides of the tree, heading full speed for the beast. Lee soon left me in the dust, which was the plan. He ran in silence, his feet barely even whispering across the forest floor. I charged like a deranged rhino, roaring the whole way. Naturally, this attracted attention, and an unoccupied head shot toward us, spewing acid at us.

Lee jumped high-jump style, passing over the smoking glob with inches to spare. I threw myself forward and to the side in order to avoid the pile of acid, rolling over my right shoulder and returning somewhat gracelessly to my feet before continuing my charge.

Seeing its attack fail to connect with the first target, the hydra head instead shot towards me, mouth wide. As it neared, I aimed my massive revolver at it and fired all five shots in rapid succession. By dint of superior skill, calm nerves under pressure, and ridiculous amounts of luck, two of the bullets smashed into the head's right eye, spoiling its aim and forcing it to miss me by at least a foot. The beak smashed into the ground and stuck there.

As we sprinted along the length of its neck, Lee held his sword out to his right, even with his shoulder, cutting the beast as we ran.

After a moment, we reached its main body, and I shouted, "NOW!" to Lee. He jumped high, bringing his sword down in a two-handed strike on the spot where two of the heads met the body of the hydra. The mighty strike cleaved through its scales, opening a five-foot long gash in its side. Lee jumped to the side right after his stroke landed, clearing the way for me.

Still screaming incoherently, I activated the bomb, moments before shoving it into the body of the hydra as hard as I could. The bomb disappeared into the wound, and I pulled my arm out, running back the way I had come as fast as I could. I shouted into my radio once again. "Get clear! Find cover, NOW!"

My team responded, disappearing behind massive trees as fast as they could. Lee and I ran, and I kept an eye on my clock, seeing we only had ten seconds to make it to the tree line thirty feet away.

"Go go go!" I yelled, even though I knew that Lee needed no such instruction. Hey, they say never to give an order you know won't be obeyed.

As the clock hit 2 seconds, Lee and I burst out of the grove. I dove sideways, tackling him to the ground and behind the same tree behind which Marcus hid.

At zero seconds, I waited for the boom. When it didn't come at the prescribed time, I looked up, panic on my face. "TENDO!" I shouted. "WHAT THE FU-" the rest of my curse was lost in a deafening explosion that made the ground jump and the trees sway dangerously.

After the sound ebbed away, I glanced over to Tendo's hiding spot. He poked his head over the top of the fallen tree he was hiding behind. He looked my way, and I glared at him for a moment before lifting my eyebrow in an unsaid question.

"Ah-heh, sorry boss. Guess I set it for twenty seconds, not fifteen. My bad," Tendo said. His head sunk a little lower behind his log, hiding everything but his forehead and eyes from my gaze. He looked like a dog that had been caught destroying something in the house. I fought the urge to smack him over the head with a rolled-up newspaper.

I risked a glance back at where the hydra had been. A massive cloud of dust slowly wafted away, and where the hydra had stood was a patch of burned, barren ground. Above the blast site floated a pop-up screen that was too small to read from here.

I walked up to the screen and pressed its 'ok' button, bringing a loot menu to life. "Oh, hell yes!" I yelled. "Everyone form up! It's Christmas time!"


	3. Chapter 3: INCOMING!

**INCOMING!**

I rubbed at the fresh damage mark on my cheek and continued glaring daggers through the backs of my squadmates' skulls.

"Are you still bitching back there, Max?" Marcus said. "Get over it, man."

Apparently, I was still muttering curses at them under my breath, too.

"When I said, 'it's Christmas,' I in no way meant that as, 'Hey guys, come bum-rush me and trample me in the dirt while you hold thirty rounds of rock-paper-scissors to determine _who gets what_!'" I yelled. "You damaged me enough that I had to use another fucking health pack!"

Hans turned his head my way. "Fearless leader is complaining too much again."

"Fuck off, Kraut."

The guys started ignoring me again after that. I took it as a good sign – at least they were quiet now.

Assholes.

Despite being the so-called 'fearless leader', I volunteered to take rear-guard, which was widely renowned in our squad as being the shittiest job in existence. On the surface, it made me look benevolent, so I didn't tell the guys that I did it because I knew they'd all be into their new gear so much they wouldn't be looking for threats. It'd be a miracle if any of them made it out of the forest without tripping over a root or running into a giant tree.

Granted, the pieces of booty we'd gotten for being the first ones to kill the boss were pretty badass. Marcus was fondling a combat shotgun big enough to kill a herd of stampeding wildebeest; Lee was leering at a shiny new silenced pistol with what I can only call lustful admiration, and Tendo had his nose buried in a tablet-looking device that was constantly updating itself with fresh information. If the guys got any more attached to their devices, I was going to have to come up with a trio of best-man speeches.

I sidled up to Hans. "So, what fancy toy did you end up with, big guy?" I asked.

Hans glanced at me. His expression clearly questioned my ability to stay silent for any length of time. My expression probably just said, 'I have no such ability, so hurry up and spill the beans.'

Instead of answering, he held up his left hand, which was wrapped in some kind of high-tech webbing. It was concentrated most heavily over his knuckles, and when he clenched his fist, electricity sparked across his fingers like power lines.

I stared at the knuckle-dusters with awe and more than a little fear. Hans' fists were already like runaway dump trucks; now they were _electrocuted_ runaway dump trucks.

"What did the boss-man get?" Hans said. His accent turned 'the' into 'ze'. He sounded like that guy from Hogan's Heroes.

"None of your damn business, that's what," I said. He quirked an eyebrow at me and looked down for a second before meeting my eyes again. It was then that I realized my hand had dipped into my pocket, where my cut of the spoils rested.

I sighed. "You know, you're supposed to be our bruiser. You're not supposed to be smart."

Hans laughed. I pulled my hand out of my pocket and showed him what was resting in my palm.

"They are… little gems," he said. "Why did you pick little gems for your loot?"

I could feel a blush forming. Dammit. "You know that accessory maker in the city? I thought he could make something out of them. Y'know, something pretty."

Hans' eyebrows climbed higher toward the top of his skull. "You wanted… pretty jewelry."

The blush grew. "God dammit, not for me, you ass. For Sinon."

My mortification knew no bounds. Any second, Hans would probably start laughing hard enough to draw the attention of the guys, who would demand explanations of their own. They'd have a field day with the knowledge that the giant German had just unearthed.

I looked away, hoping to master a blank expression for when the guys started ribbing me. I waited for the roast to begin, but the big man surprised me yet again.

"That is… very thoughtful, Max," he said. I turned to him, my jaw hanging loose. He looked at me as well, and simply said, "Pretty girls deserve pretty things." His expression told me he that he found that little piece of insight to be inherently obvious to anyone smarter than me.

"Oh," I said, wittily. "Thanks, I guess."

Hans nodded, and then slung his massive gun into a more comfortable place on his shoulder, and began marching once again.

I shut up and marched as well, probably to the satisfaction of the whole party. While my eyes stayed alerts for threats all around, my mind began to wander. Like it normally did when left to its own devices, my brain started focusing on Sinon. It may have been cheesy to admit it, but I hadn't been this happy in a long time, and I only got happier when I thought of her.

Ever since our fateful escapade into the raiders' stronghold, I couldn't get enough of her. We tried to party up as often as we could here in GGO, but we couldn't always log in at the same time. With her residing in Japan, and me in America, there was a massive time difference to fight against; fortunately, I was a bit of a night owl, so we met up often enough for our relationship to slowly grow, rather than slowly fade away.

I could tell she had scars; even I wasn't clueless enough to miss that. Everyone has baggage, but some pieces of emotional luggage weighed more heavily than others, and from what I could gather, Sinon carried around enough to fill a cruise ship. I wanted mothing more than to share the burden with her, but she was proud; far prouder than her goofball boyfriend, and she would accept no help as long as she could take care of something herself. For that reason, I let the subject go after a few unsuccessful attempts to get her to open up.

Instead, I decided I'd simply be there for her, if she needed me. She may have to carry around the mountain of her past experiences on her shoulders every day, but I let her know, simply by my presence, that I would be there to support _her_ in the event that she ever faltered. Not because I thought she was incapable of it, but because it made me happy to be there for her, and because I believed that no one should have to suffer alone.

Thus, our days in the game consisted of questing and hunting together, with feverish battles (that mostly consisted of me getting shot at, mauled, clobbered, and otherwise getting battered while Sinon sat back and sniped) leading into quiet picnics in neutral zones, watching the artificial sun set into a radioactive sky. Take it from me: the colors of a sunset glaring through a wasteland horizon will trump anything back in the real world.

We would hold hands and talk; mostly, I'd talk about life back home, running a small business during the day and sitting quietly through the evening and night. She'd ask me what my end goals were for my life, and I would try and come up with an answer better than 'I don't know'. In truth, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew she wasn't ready to hear my answer. I'd wait until she was.

I'd try to ask Sinon about her past, but that subject, I quickly discovered, was taboo. She never spoke of anything in her childhood. She told me she'd started GGO to conquer her fear of guns, but she never told me why she had the fear in the first place.

It was only recently that I asked her if joining GGO had gotten her over her fear. The proud smile that overtook her face had made my stomach twist into knots; I never wanted to see any other expression on her face again. She told of the Bullet of Bullet tournament, of Death Gun and the berserk swordsman Kirito, and how they'd fought together in the virtual world and the real one. My guts had clenched in an altogether torturous fashion as she recounted the assault she'd suffered at the hands of her insane attacker, and her rescue by the boy in all black.

I was conflicted: part of me wanted to meet this Kirito, to shake his hand, embrace him as a brother, and thank him for his heroism; on the other hand, a darker, more insecure side of me wanted to punch him so hard his eyes would pop out of the back of his skull. The tone of voice Sinon used whenever she spoke of him made every hair on my body rise like the hackles on an aggressive dog.

After her story, Sinon simply looked at me, and I saw something in her eyes I'd never seen before: fear. She and I had fought together dozens of times, and even during that one time we'd been ambushed by a PK squad, I'd never seen anything other than icy determination on her face.

It took me entirely too long to realize she wasn't afraid of any external threat; she was afraid of my reaction, of how I'd feel after I'd heard just a taste of what she'd been through. I found that in that moment, words utterly failed me (which was a first in my life), so I simply reached out to her, and pulled her into the tightest embrace I could manage. At first, she was shocked, but slowly, she relaxed, hugging me back, and after a time, I felt her slender body begin to shake with long-repressed sobs. I held her still, stroking her turquoise hair and whispering soft nothings in her ear until the tears faded away. Afterwards, we shared a kiss and sat in silence for a time before I had to log out to get some sleep before the coming work day.

That had been two days ago. The next time we logged in, we both had plans to meet with other people and go hunting and questing. She knew I'd be with the guys, hunting the Hydra, but she hadn't told me what she was going to do. I knew who she'd be with; but I had no idea what the duo had planned for their day. The ugly head of jealously reared up in my chest, but I slapped it down. I trusted Sinon implicitly, and I did not see that coming to an end any time soon.

My thoughtful reverie was rudely interrupted when someone began shouting my name.

"Max!" Marcus shouted. "Wake the fuck up, man! Where were you?"

I shook my head vigorously, fully returning to the present. "What the hell? What happened?"

Marcus pointed at Tendo, who held up his new tablet-like device. I saw a new display on the screen: a series of green circles, a rotating line reaching out from the center. Five white dots stood in close formation near the center, and a cluster of fainter green dots on the very edge. My lagging brain finally caught on to what it was.

"Is that radar?" I asked. "Do we have freaking radar now?"

"Yes!" Tendo snapped. He'd never snapped at me before. In fact, before now, I'd be willing to bet he'd never snapped at anyone in his life. "And the magic radar is telling me that we have incoming!"

Oh, boy.

Here we go again.

"Look alive, boys!" I shouted. "Time to protect our booty!"

**Author's Note:**

**To everyone who follows this story, first off: thank you. Any one of you who writes knows how incredibly rewarding it is to have someone show an interest in what you write, so I want to thank any and all readers of this story from the depths of my black, evil soul.**

**Ok, maybe that last bit was melodrama.**

**On the same hand, I owe all of the followers of this story an apology for how long it's taken to add anything. I'd say life got in the way, but that's an excuse. All I can say is when I started this story, it was only meant to be a one-shot, but I had way too much fun with Max's character, so I didn't want to give it up. Now, finally, I know where this story is going, so I can promise that updates will come far more quickly than they did before. **

**So, dear readers, I hope you enjoyed your time so far with Max and his cronies, as there will be more to come. **


	4. Chapter 4: It's a Trap!

Chapter 4: It's a Trap!

Sniping is a rare skill set for a good reason.

People assume that it's about having good aim; that if you have precision, you can hit any target within your sight.

They're only partly right.

Precision and accuracy are important, yes, but every gunslinger has those. Successful snipers have a trait that most others lack.

Patience.

It took me many months of practice to learn patience; to be willing to wait for hours on end for a target to appear. It took even longer to master the patience to select a target, to research and study them until I knew them as well as I knew myself, to find the perfect place from which to strike at them.

It took an extraordinary level of will to invest that kind of time into a game. But, for me, GGO was never really a game. It was my gateway, a key I needed to unlock the cage of my past and finally set myself free.

After much blood, sweat, and hardship, I left my past behind, finding some measure of closure. It was, in no small part, thanks to the person who now waited by my side, just as patient and relaxed as…

"UUUUUUGGGGHHH I'm so boooooorrreddd…"

Ok, maybe not _quite _as patiently as me.

"Seriously," Kirito whined. I don't think I've ever heard him whine before. "How long are we going to have to wait here for them? Your boyfriend is going _way_ too slow."

I felt a familiar twinge in my gut at the word 'boyfriend'. I still hadn't decided if it was more butterflies or fear I felt whenever I thought of Max. I pushed it out of my mind and continued watching the edge of the forest.

Kirito rolled over from his back onto his stomach. The motion brought his body nearly into direct contact with mine. Once upon a time, that same twinge would have gone through me at his proximity. Now, I barely even registered it. Kirito was like the little sister I'd never asked for.

"Keep in mind," I said, never taking my eyes off of my scope. "This was your idea. Someone in Max's group is a mole, and this is how we're going to find out."

Kirito unclipped the photon blade from his belt and began twirling the hilt through his fingertips. It might have looked cool, considering how effortless it was, but the image was ruined by his avatar's very feminine face and the utterly petulant look upon it.

"I'm waiting for the moment when that thing activates unexpectedly and you end up slicing off your own fingers," I said. "Stop it."

Kirito blew a sigh and did as he was told. "You're no fun at all, Sinon," he said. He pulled a pair of binoculars off of his belt and began observing the landscape as well. "How do we know that the raiders will try and hit them again?"

I bit back a snarl and a snappy retort. Kirito didn't have a sniper's patience; he was a berserker, one of few players in this post-apocalyptic world to use a sword instead of a gun. I thought he was crazy at first, but I'd seen him use the purple blade to deadly effect more than once. Still, bum-rushing bad guys and deflecting bullets took nerve, not patience, so I went over the plan again to take his mind off of the wait.

"Max and his team are taking on a boss that no one's beaten yet. The loot they'll carry will likely be incredibly rare, or at least high-quality. They'll be tired, worn-down, and possibly even suffering casualties, which makes them prime targets. We know that they've been hit before, but I was there; it was way too coincidental that they walked into such a devastating ambush. Thus, we can assume that one of the guys is a mole, leaking information to the raiders. I'll even bet they have dozens of players in that role, spreading out over lots of teams to lure them to set trap-points."

Kirito nodded. Now that his mind was focused on something other than boredom, all traces of petulance were gone from his face. "Do you really think they're working towards something bigger?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I think if there weren't some clues pointing towards that conclusion, that guy from the government wouldn't have paid you to look into it," I said.

Kirito subsided into silence. I knew him well enough to know he was thinking furiously. The last time the government had asked him to look into something suspicious in a VRMMO, four people died, two went to jail, and Kirito and I both narrowly avoided early graves ourselves. All signs pointed to this endeavor being far more than simple reconnaissance.

And yet, I still decided to tag along when Kirito asked me. What does that say about me?

My musings came to a screeching halt as I saw movement flicker in the distance. I focused on a section of the tree line, increasing the zoom of my scope as I did. The world sprang toward my eye, and my attention came to rest on a massive man with an M240 resting on his shoulder. Judging by his height, physique, and the distinctive white Mohawk, I figured he must've been Hans, the bruiser of Max's band of misfits.

"Kirito," I said. I felt his attention snap back to reality. "They're here."

Hans was followed by a smaller man in full body armor, which was heavily creased at the stomach. I didn't know who he was. Behind him came a small, rat-faced man, and another dressed a skintight outfit that seemed to disappear and reappear at random intervals.

"Whoa, cool helmet," Kirito said.

I resisted the urge to smack him. "You hate helmets. Just shut up and keep an eye on him and the guy in the damaged armor. I'll keep an eye on the giant in front and the mousey guy. If the team gets jumped, I want to know how each one reacts."

"_Hai,"_ Kirito said. He continued watching through his binoculars, his body as still as a tiger preparing to pounce.

I took stock of Max's squad as they exited the tree line. All of them showed obvious signs of damage and fatigue, but the fact that they were all still active, coupled with the reverent way they were handling a gaggle of new gadgets and weapons, indicated that they were riding high off of a major victory with the boss in the forest. In essence, they were the perfect bait.

The pang in my gut returned full force as I spied Max walking out of the trees himself. He'd fallen back onto rearguard duties, ostensibly to be nice to his team, but I knew him well enough to know he'd probably just gotten fed up with their obsession with their new toys and decided to keep watch himself.

"They're clear of the tree line now," Kirito said. "If they get jumped, it'll be before they reach the city ruins. They're wide open out here, and there are too many places in the ruins where they could lose pursuers if an ambush took too long. We need to be ready."

I made an affirmative noise and kept my eyes on the scope. I had to forcibly remind myself not to open fire as soon as things turned to hell; our job was to observe Max's team, not save them from an ambush.

My resolve was tested the very next instant. About 300 meters from Max's squad, a half-dozen shapes popped up from the ground. It looked like they had half-buried themselves in the gray dirt all around, and wore colors that matched the ground to add to the camouflage. My finger tensed on the trigger of my Hecate II sniper rifle, but I forced the digit to relax. I could have taken any of the six attackers with ease, but I knew I had to wait and see what happened, even though they'd gotten the drop on Max's unwary team.

I kept my eyes on the guys, waiting for them to do something suspicious. This was the key moment: if any of them was a mole, they would be expecting the ambush, and even the best of actors sometimes slips and gives away the game if caught unawares.

There was a snag in the plan, though.

None of Max's team acted surprised at all.

As soon as the guerrilla soldiers manifested, Max's team burst into action. Everyone but Max dropped flat on the ground, their weapons trained forward as they lay prone. Max fell to one knee and raised his assault rifle to a firing position. He launched a grenade from the launcher beneath the barrel of his gun, and the explosive detonated in the middle of the attackers' formation. One raider disintegrated instantly as the grenade went off under his feet. The others were thrown into the air, landing haphazardly across the landscape.

With the attackers thrown into disarray, their ambush turned upon them, and Max's team turned the tides and attacked. The other four members rose from the ground and began targeting the would-be raiders with a vengeance. In short order, four of the five remaining bad guys were torn apart by a combination of assault rounds, shotgun blasts, and in one spectacular instance, bisected by a blue photon sword. I wondered if Kirito was getting sword envy.

The last attacker managed to get to his feet before being targeted. I expected him to turn and run; there was nothing more disconcerting than having an easy ambush get turned into an absolute massacre. Instead, he got into a firing position of his own, aiming a FAMAS rifle at point-blank range at the massive German.

Said German saw the attack coming; either he'd been expecting it, or he'd been tripped to it by the Bullet Line defense system inherent in the game. He twisted at the waist, allowing a trio of bullets to soar past his shoulder. He turned the motion into a 360-degree spin, building up force that turned into a massive haymaker punch. Just as his fist neared the unfortunate raider's face, it sparked with electricity, like his whole arm had turned into a high-powered electrical cable. The punch laid the man low, and electricity continued to spark along his body from head to toe, causing his body to twitch and jerk erratically.

Kirito let out a soft whistle. "Hell of a punch," he said. "That guy would've mastered the Martial Arts skill back in SAO in no time."

This time, I did not resist the urge to smack him. "Aren't you supposed to be watching the other two?" I snapped. "What if you missed them doing something suspicious because you have the attention span of a fish?"

Kirito's voice turned petulant again. "The fighting was already over! The guy in the armor didn't do anything weird, and the helmet guy turned invisible as soon as the fight started, so I have no idea what he did! Sheesh…"

I sighed heavily as I turned my eye back to my scope. Max's team was regrouping around the paralyzed prisoner, who was still sparking and twitching. It seemed the fight was all over.

As soon as that thought crossed my brain, another shape detached itself from the shadows of the tree line. A seventh attacker, wearing a suit similar to the cloaked member of Max's team, burst from the shadows and shot toward Max's back while his attention was elsewhere. The man must've run in complete silence, because no one reacted or turned his way. He lifted an ugly-looking serrated knife as he charged, clearly intent on plunging it into Max's unprotected back.

Without the consent of my brain, my hands flew into motion; I racked a round into the chamber of the Hecate II, placed my finger on the trigger, and fired the massive rifle as soon as the targeting circle narrowed on the raider's head. The round left the barrel with a sound like a dozen thunderclaps, and dirt jumped all around us in response to the overwhelming noise.

The gigantic bullet crossed the thousand meters between me and my target in a couple of seconds; it passed between the giant German and the mousey guy with inches to spare, and plunged past Max's ear by a hairsbreadth before smashing into the forehead of his would-be assailant. The man's avatar disappeared almost instantly, due to the overwhelming damage of a headshot from such a powerful gun.

I released the breath I'd been holding, and ejected the spent shell casing from my gun. Kirito was looking at me with a quirked eyebrow. He knew what I'd done and why I'd done it, but he wasn't sure what the fallout of me giving us away would be. If I was honest, I didn't either.

After about ten seconds of stunned silence, the radio in my ear crackled to life, and Max's deep and utterly incredulous voice appeared. "Uh, Sinon?" he said. "Was that you?"

I debated my options. I could play dumb, tell him I was elsewhere with Kirito, but I knew he'd see through such an obvious lie. How many snipers would be out there, waiting to save his hide at the last minute? Better to just come out with it.

"Yes," I said. "That was me."

Another couple of seconds passed before Max spoke again, saying: "Not that I'm not appreciative of the save, but might I ask what the hell you're doing out here, watching my squad?"

Max may occasionally be slightly thick-headed, but he wasn't stupid; he knew that if I'd been ready to snipe the bad guy, I would have to have been waiting the entire time. The only question was why.

I sighed again. "Wait there," I said. "We'll come out and meet you. Maybe see if your prisoner there has anything to say for himself."

"Understood," Max said. There was an angry iciness in his voice that I'd never heard before.

My gut twisted again, unpleasantly this time; Max had never gotten that tone with me before. Knowing that I deserved it made the anxiety that much worse.

Oh, well. Time to face the music. Hopefully, by the end of the discussion, at least I'd have some answers to the questions in my head. I stood, and hefted the Hecate in my hands.

I turned to Kirito. "Let's go," I said.

**Author's Note: Hello again, everyone! Apologies for the short chapters (well, short compared to the first two). The story has been changing direction in my head so often, I have to keep my writing under control lest it run away from me. **

**I hope you enjoyed this story! It was a lot of fun trying it out from Sinon's perspective. I hope to have more updates soon!**


	5. Chapter 5: Taken

**Taken **

"Understood," I said. The anger was again evident in my voice. This time, it was blended heavily with confusion, and shaken with a dash of gratitude. Sinon did just save my ass, after all.

Knowing her, she took the shot from at least a half-mile away. I had a few minutes to kill before I started the metaphorical OK Corral with my girlfriend.

I guess I could do to blow off some steam in the meantime.

"Hans," I said, shouldering my rifle and drawing my massive sidearm. "How's our guest doing?"

Hans grinned from the corner of his mouth. "Still giving off sparks," he said. He mimed kissing his knuckle-dusters, careful to not actually let the electrified gauntlets touch his lips. "I think I may be in love with these."

"Careful having your alone time with them, or you may end up barbecuing your junk," I said. I shuddered. "That is something I don't want to think of ever again."

Marcus laughed; Hans glared. It was actually a pretty standard state of being for our group.

"How long do you think the status effect will last on our friend?" I asked.

Hans looked pensive for a moment. "When I picked up the item, the description said the stun lasts for a minimum of one minute. Depending on the character build, it may last as long as three," Hans looked down at his sprawled-out victim, who was still giving off errant sparks while twitching. "I think it's been about two minutes since I hit him. He'll be out soon, regardless."

"Take his weapons, tie his hands up, and keep an eye on him so he doesn't bolt as soon as he comes out of it. I want to have a chit-chat."

About forty-five seconds later, our attacker/victim, now weaponless and bound, regained the use of his limbs. As I thought he might, he instantly bolted, presumably on the hope that a fast enough escape would allow him to get past us before we could grab him. Of course, we'd just fill his back full of bullets, but still, it's better than getting killed while lying prone in the dust.

Unfortunately for the raider, we were anticipating his hasty retreat. As he sprung to his feet, he tried to sprint through the slight gap Marcus and I had left between us. Marcus stuck his arm out and clotheslined the poor bastard just as I swung a foot at the backs of his ankles, exacerbating and hastening his descent. He nearly did a complete flip before he landed hard on his neck. If it'd been real life, I figure it probably would have snapped on impact.

Much to my surprise, the man started struggling to his feet just moments after he hit the ground. I was surprised at his resilience; even without feeling any pain in this game, a landing like that would be as disorienting as hell. He was a determined bastard, all right.

Fortunately, my guys knew how to deal with determination.

As soon as the guy had rolled to his knees, Hans walked up behind him, lined up the shot, and kicked the guy square in the nuts as hard as he could. Through whatever sick pleasures possessed by the programmers of this game, nut shots could mess up a guy nearly as bad as they would in real life. There was still no pain, just the same gut-wrenching nausea and discomfort one would normally experience after getting tagged in the danglers.

I walked over to the man, who was now rolling side to side, his weight resting on his knees and has face, hands still tied behind his back. He was muttering incoherently, though I could only assume he was swearing up a storm in our general direction. I know I would be.

As I stared down at the guy, I noticed something strange on the back of his neck. It looked like the battery pack on a dog's shock collar, except sleeker. A very faint green light pulsed on it at regular intervals.

It was an interesting discovery, but not one pertinent to the situation at hand. I snapped my focus back to the present.

"Hello, my friend," I said, as I pushed the man onto his side with my boot. "Are you done trying to run away for the moment?"

The man glared up at me and said something disparaging about my mother. I glared back and said, "Hans."

The big German walked up beside me and scuffed his nut-kicking boot in the dirt near the man's head. He got the message and ceased impugning my mother's honor.

"Better," I said. "Now, I have some questions for you. Tell me everything I want to know, and I'll let you go. Lie or withhold things from me, and we'll kill you and take you stuff for loot."

The raider's eyes narrowed further, but he nodded once.

"Splendid. Marcus, prop our friend up, if you would."

Marcus did as I asked, pulling the man up so he was sitting. He leaned forward heavily, thanks to his bonds. The bend of his spine, coupled with the fact that his hands were tied behind him at belt level, meant that his shoulders and neck must have been in major discomfort by now.

My heart bled for the poor lamb.

"Now then," I said, crouching down in the dirt in front of him. "Let's start with the basics. What's your name?"

The man glared at me, and remained sullenly silent.

"Marcus," I said.

Marcus walked up behind the raider, calmly drew his handgun, and pressed the cold metal against the back of the man's head. "Dibs on any armor he drops," he said, and cocked the hammer on the gun back into firing position.

Apparently, the raider was fond of his ill-gotten gains. He broke and blurted, "All right, all right! Jesus, you guys never even heard of foreplay, or what? I ignore one stupid question and you go right for the blow-your-brains-out shtick."

"We're Americans," I said, deadpan. "We don't believe in patience. Now once again, what's your name?"

"Gabriel."

"Gabriel," I said. I glanced up at Marcus and shook my head. "I've always hated that name. Knew a real dickhead all throughout school with that name.

"So, Gabe," I said, casually gesturing with my giant revolver. "I'm gonna ask you a fairly obvious question. I expect you to answer it both quickly and truthfully. Take too long in answering, or give me reason to suspect you're lying, and we go back to the 'blow-your-brains-out shtick'. Got it?"

Gabriel nodded his head.

"Wonderful. Now, who the hell were you guys, and why were you waiting to ambush us?"

Gabe's mouth twisted into a sardonic smirk. "That's two questions, Stretch. Which of those was I supposed to answer?"

I blinked at him. Then I calmly lifted my revolver and blew his left arm off at the shoulder.

"FUCK!" He screamed. His severed arm flew off with the power of the massive bullet, spinning away as it shattered into colored glass. I imagined that even without pain, losing your arm would be somewhat unnerving.

Quick as I could, I shoved the barrel of the gun into his gaping, screaming mouth. He stopped screaming almost instantly.

"Sarcasm," I said, my tone no longer playful, "is my thing. Do not, under any circumstance, step on my toes again. Is there an understanding between us?"

Gabriel nodded, his teeth clacking irregularly against the barrel of my gun, which I then removed from his mouth.

"Same question, then, Gabe. Do better this time."

"We're mercs, guns for hire," he said, words flowing from his mouth like submachinegun fire. "We picked up a contract about six months ago. Some bigwig with a lot of clout and even more money wanted us to hit routes. Always big takes, always high profile. He didn't seem to care about drawing attention. Guess it wouldn't matter, anyways. He's got enough guys on his payroll to make anyone think twice before attacking."

Marcus piped up from behind the raider. "How does he pay you?"

"In-game currency," Gabe said. "Though usually the best incentive is just to loot the people we kill. Being able to raid without getting targeted back is a great way to get a lot of money, fast."

I rubbed at the digital hair on my chin, which in my mind looked pensive, but probably just looked dumb and pretentious. This guy wasn't going to get us much in the way of information – he was too low on the totem pole. And clearly, with his motivations extending no further than immediate profit, he wouldn't be looking too closely at the inner workings of the organization to which he belonged.

I looked at Marcus and Hans and jerked my head towards our prisoner. They took the hint and began questioning him for me as I walked away, my mind running over the information provided by Gabe. Clearly, these raiders were a far bigger problem than anyone had anticipated. Sure, everyone had noticed the uptick in raids recently, but most players weren't logged in often enough to notice the shift too severely; only hardcore gamers like me would have been hit often enough to warrant reprisal.

The question was: how to get the raiders to stop? The most obvious solution was to report our findings to the company who ran the servers. Contact them, complain about the other players' behavior, wait for them to investigate, and then watch them shut down the raiders' accounts or penalize them. Such an act would serve as an incentive for other groups to never try it again, and would be the proper way to handle the situation.

However, there were problems with that plan – one, I had no idea who to contact about something of this magnitude. A regular, anonymous tip to the company would take forever to filter to the top, and even longer for someone to actually start looking into it. Furthermore, if Gabe was right and whoever was heading up the raids was in tight with someone high up in the company, they could squash a complaint with no difficulty – they may even be able to trace the complaint to me, and hunt me down in-game or even shut down my account altogether.

I was musing over the pros and cons of tricking Marcus or Tendo into submitting the complaint instead when I heard footsteps running towards us. My eyes snapped upwards in time with my gun, but I relaxed when I recognized Sinon's lithe profile jogging purposefully towards me.

My tension rose once again when I spotted another figure running just behind Sinon. Its profile was only slightly larger than hers, with thin shoulders and long, dark hair. I pegged the figure for a woman based on the shape of her body and the way she held herself, though there was something about them screamed 'dude' to the back of my mind, but I couldn't figure out what.

I began walking towards them, slowly, putting my revolver back into its holster as I did.

We met about fifty yards away from where the guys were interrogating poor Gabe, and both women came to a stop just a few feet in front of me.

"Hi," I said, looking Sinon in the eye. She knew I wasn't happy.

"Hi," she replied, meeting my eyes. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder at the other woman.

My chivalry kicked in. I toned down my alpha male aura and stepped towards the stranger with a hand extended. "I don't believe we've met, miss. My name is Max. May I ask your name?"

The girl suddenly blushed scarlet. Her eyes gained equal parts anger and embarrassment. I didn't understand what I'd said wrong until Sinon spoke up. "That's Kirito," she said.

I froze in confusion. My hand remained extended as my thoughts struggled to catch up to Sinon's words. "You're Kirito?" I said, as the girl took my hand in a firm grip. "Sorry, I thought you were a guy."

"I am a guy," Kirito said.

I looked at Kirito, and then at Sinon, who stood impassively to the side, watching and waiting.

"I see," I said. "And what, pray tell, were you doing with my girlfriend, watching me and my squad from a distance?"

Kirito opened his mouth to answer, and as he did, I saw the realization run across his mind as to what I was implying. His words were stifled then by my fist, which rocketed towards his mouth with as much speed and force I could muster. My inner alpha male demanded that I establish dominance in the fastest, most brutal fashion imaginable.

At least, that was the plan.

As my fist shot forward with what I thought was impressive speed, the long-haired man leaned back and to the left slightly, and my fist sailed past him with inches to spare. The look on his face told me that he'd barely had to try to dodge the punch. The speed with which he grabbed my wrist, twisted in to kill my momentum, and kicked my legs out from under me served as confirmation of the skill and speed inherent in his reflexes. It wasn't until I landed on my ass in the dirt that I realized just how outclassed I was.

I opened my eyes and looked up at Kirito and Sinon. His face showed traces of sheepishness and anger, and Sinon's eyes were closed in exasperation. "Well," I said. "That didn't go as planned."

"And what exactly _were _you planning?" Sinon said.

I thought about that one for a second.

"Nah, I got nothing," I said. I sat up, propping myself up on my elbows. I looked up at Kirito. "I'll level with you – I still have a rather strong urge to clock you. I'm willing to admit, however, that the chances of that happening are exceedingly low. How's about a truce?"

Kirito looked at me with that stern glare for a second more, and then his face split into a goofy grin. "Truce it is," he said. He held out one hand, offering to help me to my feet.

I intentionally scrubbed my hand through the dust and dirt before reaching out to take it. I took vindictive pleasure in watching him try and brush the dirt off of his pristine black gloves.

Sinon was glaring at me. Even I wasn't dim enough to be confused as to why. Despite that, my only response to her look was, "What?"

She blew a heavy, resigned sigh, but resisted the urge to tear into me. For her, that was a hell of an achievement – I usually deserved being torn into a bit.

"Can we please behave like adults instead of little children now?" she said. Kirito and I both nodded. She then proceeded to step up to Kirito and punch him in the shoulder, hard enough to jostle him a little bit. He didn't even try to dodge it, just took the hit like he was a crash test dummy. "That was for showing up my boyfriend," she said, and then brushed path the both of us and began striding to where my team still held poor Gabe prisoner.

Kirito and I both looked at one another, shrugged in unison, and followed.

My long strides let me catch up to Sinon just a second or two before Kirito, a fact from which I derived no pleasure whatsoever. As I slowed my stride to match Sinon's pace, I asked the obvious question. "When am I going to get some answers as to why you were using me as bait?"

She looked over at me, possibly surprised that I had correctly inferred their reasoning for shadowing me and my team. I quirked an eyebrow, a subtle gesture that told her I was waiting for an answer. "Let's finish interrogating the poor guy you caught. Then I'll explain." She pulled her scarf over the bottom half of her face as she finished talking, and I took the hint and stopped pressing.

We walked up to the guys just as Kirito caught up to us. My boys looked up at us, then at me, waiting.

"Gentlemen," I said. My tone told them that I was using the word facetiously. "This is Sinon, my girlfriend. Be nice or I'll kill you. Slowly."

The boys all inclined their heads and gave polite greetings as they introduced themselves. After they'd finished, Marcus looked over to Kirito. "Who's your friend, Sinon?" he asked. He had his I-think-I'm-smooth tone on.

Sinon heaved the familiar sigh once again. "Kirito. He's a guy."

Judging by her lack of reaction to the horrified looks on the guys' faces, she'd given that answer before.

"Moving on," I said, and started walking up to Gabe once again. When the boys didn't move or remove the stupefied looks from their faces, I resorted to slapping Tendo on the back of the head, snapping him and the guys out of it. "Focus, assholes. We're not done here yet. You guys spread out, keep an eye out for anyone else that may come our way."

They grumbled and carried on as they always did, but they listened and followed orders nonetheless. I turned to Kirito and Sinon. "He's all yours," I said, and stepped behind Gabe, pulling out my combat knife and a whetstone. I figured the sound may soften up Gabe even further. Or possibly just irritate him. I was fine with either outcome.

Kirito and Sinon began questioning Gabe, and I tuned out slightly as he relayed to them information I'd already heard. I kept my eyes on him, however, ready to intervene if he did anything stupid. That was how I noticed, for the second time, the small plastic black box attached to the back of Gabe's neck. It was attached right where his spine ended and his neck began, and had a small green LED that blinked at regular intervals. I continued staring at it, puzzled. I'd seen similar bits of equipment before, 'implants' that could be purchased in-game. They were supposed to give increases to a character's base stats, but they were wildly expensive, and the benefits were generally considered not to be worth the exorbitant cost, since one would have to pay an NPC surgeon to install the implant on top of the cost of the item itself.

As I mused over the rare item, the LED changed from a cheery green to an angry red. It glowed, sullen and solid. It reminded me of the little red lights on video cameras when they were recording or displaying…

Suddenly, Gabe twitched violently. His head snapped to one side, and an almost feral growl escaped him. I stood up, my whetstone falling out of my hand. "The hell is he doing?" I shouted.

"I don't know!" Sinon said. She began raising her rifle, but froze with the barrel halfway up to her target. He face was frozen in fear. "There's no way…." she said. I saw angry red light reflecting off of her face, and I had no idea where it was coming from.

Gabe spoke then, but it wasn't Gabe. The voice was deeper, electronic, like Darth Vader without the sound of synthesized breathing. "You!" he shouted, his voice stentorian. "And YOU!" The latter was aimed at Kirito. "Finally, you've come!"

It happened far too fast for me to predict, much less intervene. Gabe's remaining arm shot forward, a small, compact, and high-tech gun popping out of the sleeve of his jacket and into his hand. He immediately pointed and fired, not even needing to aim from that distance. The projectile that came from the barrel was shining like an incandescent star as it flashed toward its quarry.

But he hadn't aimed at Kirito.

The bullet ripped through Sinon's shoulder, and she screamed in surprise. There was no way that a single shot from a small gun like that could take out a high-level player in one hit, but still, the look on Sinon's face told me that there was more going on than what I could see.

I was already racing forward as Gabe lurched to his feet, dropping my knife as I went. Kirito didn't stop him, as he was rushing to Sinon's side, propping her up as she slowly pitched over. I reached her side a second after Kirito, and took her from his arms. She hung limp in my arms, save for the occasional muscle spasm that caused her to jerk and twitch erratically.

"Sinon!" I yelled. "What's happening? Talk to me!"

Sinon opened her mouth, trying to explain whatever was happening to her. Before she could, her avatar abruptly froze, and then disappeared in a flash of blue light. Where she had rested in my arms, a small white dialogue box floated, sporting the words 'connection error' in calm black letters.

I knelt in the dirt, stunned into immobility. My hands grasped at the empty air where my girlfriend had once been, utterly dumbfounded by the lack of her weight against my arms.

After a few silent moments, I looked up, and saw that the confusion I felt was matched only by Kirito's horror. His face was ashen, and the fear in his eyes was all-consuming; the kind you only felt when the unthinkable happened, in accordance with your worst nightmares.

Before my brain could even begin to decipher the meaning behind Kirito's dread, red descended on my own mind. I rose to my feet, slowly and gracefully, like the specter of death rising from Hell to claim another soul. My gaze landed on Gabe, who was going through his own exorcism-like event. Half of his face was locked in a rictus snarl of a smile, the kind that the worst of humanity would wear after their most recent atrocity. The other side of his face oscillated between fear and confusion, as if the right side of his body knew that he'd sinned and that judgement was barreling down upon him.

My feet carried me toward him of their own accord, and Hans and Tendo, who had been holding him in place on his knees, let go and backed away as quickly as they could. Gabe stood on shaky knees, his two legs attempting to go in opposite directions, and his balance failed him as he tumbled to the dirt.

Or rather, he would have tumbled, if I hadn't grabbed his neck with one hand and hoisted him into the air like a child.

His face was now level with mine, his feet dangling six inches of the ground, still jerking away from one another. I could feel the errant muscle twitches in his neck, as the two sides of his face warred against each other, as if he'd been possessed by the god Janus, if Janus was into arguing with himself constantly.

I waited, in perfectly silent rage, for Gabe's attention to focus on me. When the attention failed to come, I took it a step further. With one hand, I drew my massive revolver from its holster, ratcheted back the hammer with a loud, metallic SNAP, and then slowly held the barrel up to Gabe's face. His eyes, both triumphant and terrified, locked onto the gaping metallic hellmouth of the gun's barrel.

"Do I have your attention now?" I whispered. It was a whisper the way Niagra falls is a waterfall – it's an accurate description to call it that, but it doesn't adequately describe the depth and terrifying power behind the words.

Gabe's head bobbed in a frantic and conflicted nod, before he too went suddenly still. I was afraid for a moment he would disappear like Sinon had before I could question him, but my fears were proven baseless a moment after, when his head snapped backward, both eyes rolling back into his skull. He screamed, the sound both human and robotic, before he slumped forward like a marionette with its string cut.

After a long pause, Gabe slowly raised his head once again, his eyes wide and focused. His eyes, which had gone from pasty, dog-shit brown to seething red, were now a fluorescent green shot through with lines of red that shot across his eyes like lines of code. His right eye was open twice as much as his left, and a manic grin held his face in rictus. He looked like a man who was possessed by the Demon Lord of 90's computer hackers. The look on Gabe's face was enough to send the rest of my squad and even Kirito stumbling backwards, away from the maniac.

It didn't much affect me; or rather, the whirling spiral of rage where my consciousness used to be.

"Where. Is. She." I said, each word a staccato seethe through clamped teeth.

"Your lovely lady will soon be with me," Gabe said. At least, the words came from Gabe's mouth. I had a gut feeling that it wasn't actually Gabe saying them.

I spun the revolver in my right hand, grasping it by the barrel before I brought the butt against Gabe's temple in a vicious backhand. His head snapped to the side with the vicious blow, only to slowly rotate back to its original place like nothing had happened. The movement was both fluid and mechanical, and wholly unnatural. I didn't let it bother me.

I spun the gun around my index finger and pressed the point against the center of Gabe's forehead. "Where. Is. She." I repeated, in the exact same tone of voice.

This time, Gabe's reaction was laughter. It started as a few giggles, tiny noises that matched the erratic movement of his head and shoulders. They quickly escalated into manic cackling, his whole body shaking in my grip, until he was writhing above me, laughing like the madman who had realized that it was the world who was crazy, not him.

Eventually, the mad shaking brought Gabe's gaze upward, away from my face, and he happened to land his gaze on Kirito.

He froze for an endless second before every muscle in his body contracted, trying to lurch towards the swordsman in black.

"YOU!" He shouted. He attempted to say more, but his words became instantly incoherent as he raged.

Something in me snapped. One part of me decided, 'yup, fuck this guy,' while the other screamed of danger that needed to be stamped out immediately.

So, I pulled the trigger.

Gabe's head disappeared in a flash of light and a thunderous roar. His body slumped, slipped, and eventually disintegrated, the segment of his neck held in my fist disappearing last.

As it disappeared, my fingers tightened without the resistance of his neck, and I accidentally caught the small piece of plastic that had remained behind. I turned my palm up and gazed at the implant that had been on Gabe's neck. It was no longer showing any lights nor signs of life; it must have deactivated with the death of its player and been dropped as loot.

I wanted nothing to do with it for the moment, but it was probably worth further consideration later. I stuffed it into one of the massive pockets in my coat.

I turned to Kirito and my squad, already putting my gun away. As I walked over to where they were all standing dumb and mute, I picked up the knife that I had dropped in my earlier haste. I kept it in my hand as I walked over to Kirito.

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked. My voice was calm, but no one on Earth would have that I was.

"I- I have no idea," Kirito stammered. His eyes were still locked on the space that Sinon had previously occupied. His fingers twitched erratically, like his body wanted him to do something, anything, but he physically couldn't.

"Bullshit," I said. I took a step closer to him, crowding into his space. He still didn't move or redirect his gaze. "We're all freaked out, but you're worse than all of us combined. You know something, or you've seen something like this before. Now SPILL."

"I can't," Kirito said. His voice became quieter. "I'd get in deep trouble if I did."

My patience snapped once again. I backhanded Kirito with my knife hand, and this time he was far too shell-shocked to dodge. The pommel of my knife bashed into his cheekbone, and his head snapped hard to his left, and he went down on one knee. I reached behind me and slipped my knife back into its sheath underneath my coat. Then, I reached down and grabbed Kirito by the lapels of his jacket and hoisted him to his feet.

"Get your shit together," I said. "I couldn't be bothered to give two SHITS about why you're staying quiet. You know what happened to my girl. So tell me!" My face was just inches from his as I bellowed out the command.

Kirito seemed at war with himself. Sinon never told me what had actually gone down between them, but I knew that something criminal had happened, so I believed it when he said he could get into trouble if he divulged whatever he knew; but, with Sinon's fate at stake, I officially gave no fucks.

Kirito must have decided the same, because he blew a massive sigh and brushed my hands off of him. "You're right," he said. "She's more important than my promise to the police."

I nodded, still too angry to be truly thankful.

"Ahem,"

I looked past Kirito. Marcus was the one who had cleared his throat. He looked at me. "I know that you guys are having a moment right now, but could someone please include us in the damn conversation? I've got a dozen questions at least, but they all pretty much amount to 'what the fuck was that?' So, please enlighten us as to what the fuck that was."

I looked to Kirito and jerked my head at the guys, indicating that we should include them in whatever he was about to tell me. Instead of turning and including the guys, however, Kirito closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I'll tell you what happened, Max, just because of your relationship with Sinon. But I don't know these guys, and I don't know if they'll keep their mouths shut. I wasn't kidding about the legal trouble I could be in for this."

I stared at him and thought for a minute, and then decided that his logic was sound. I turned to Marcus and the squad. "You should head out, boys. Get to a safe zone, do what you gotta do in town, and then log out. I don't know what's happening either, but I promise I'll get a hold of you if something comes up that I need your help with."

They weren't happy to hear that, but they didn't argue. They could tell that I wasn't going to budge on the issue. Without another word, they all got up and started making their way to the nearest safe zone, so they could log out and protect their loot and rewards.

I let them walk long enough for their profiles to be nearly lost to the horizon before I turned to Kirito.

"Now then, there are no more witnesses or eavesdroppers. So let's hear it all."

**Author's note: Jesus H. Christ it's been a long time since I last wrote anything, much less did a post on this story. If anyone is still reading this, I appreciate either your dedication, your patience, or your impressive level of boredom (whatever made you keep reading). I promise I'm going to try and become more consistent with my writing habits. Anyhow, I hope you're enjoying the tale so far!**


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